Start Of Something New
by matildacullen
Summary: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B & A/B OOC.
1. Chapter 1

**So, this is a new story I've been working on for a few hours today and I have to say I really enjoy writing it so far. Let's see where I take it... :) I hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think!**

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

My father dropped me off at my new boarding school early on Monday morning.

White snowflakes danced in front of my eyes and a thick layer off white was also under my feet. It was early October.

Shawnigan Lake School, in Vancouver, Canada, was a world-class boarding school that offered advanced placement courses from grades 8 – 12.

Other students ran around the enormous school ground and threw snowballs at each other, laughing and screaming of joy. In the corner of my eye, I saw a teacher yell at them from a window on the third floor.

The school looked more like a castle than a school and towered up over me and into the sky. It had six floors and each one had hundreds and hundreds of windows. The snow had covered most of the facade, but it looked to be made of black stone. Two huge towers stood at the short sides.

Charlie, my dad, said his goodbyes quickly and left as soon as he could to avoid an emotional, uncomfortable farewell.

Shuddering of the cold, I slowly made my way through the snow towards my new school and home. My suitcase hung loosely on my shoulder.

It was, least said, a nerve-racking day for me. Everyone knew what Shawnigan Lake School was like and what kind of kids that went here. It was an expensive school, a school for spoiled kids and stuck-ups.

So how did I, not-so-rich-Bella-Swan, end up here? Yes…

To shorten it up, I won a scholarship. I was announced about it very late, which was the reason for my late arrival. My father was thrilled. Not that he didn't enjoy having me around, he said, but it would be a learning experience for me to live on my own. Right…

My mother was out of the picture and had been for a very long time. She called me on my birthdays and on Christmas, but only when she wasn't working or traveling with her new husband, Phil. She didn't care if was at Charlie's or on a boarding school, as long as I was alive and didn't bother her.

When I got closer to the school I saw more details then before and my eyes couldn't move fast enough to drink it all in. Everything had a very elegant style, harsh and cold, but elegant.

There was forest everywhere around the castle, green and brown and white with snow.

The enormous school ground was empty for the most part and almost blinding because of all the white – it was a perfect space to play several football games at the same time. I felt very small on the big surface and from one of the windows I must only be a small, black spot.

A long, stone staircase led to the main entrance and I checked to see if it was slippery. It wasn't; it looked like many students had already walked there and it seemed safe.

The door was, to my surprise because everything else was stone, made of wood and it was so huge that I was sure an elephant would have room to get through.

Uncertainly, I reached for the handle and tried to push it open. It was extremely heavy and I wondered, nervously, if it was locked. I tried it a few more times, my breathing becoming uneven, before I gave up and sighed in frustration.

I turned around and looked over the school ground. There were still a few other students out, playing in the snow, but they were obviously not planning to head inside any time soon.

"Need a hand?" a loud, booming male voice asked. My head snapped to the side and I noticed that a boy, about my age, had climbed the stairs without me noticing. His muscles swelled under his jacket and he was very tall. The black, curly hair glittered with snow when he grinned down at me.

My cheeks, naturally, turned a bright pink and I wondered if it was a common issue for new students to not get through the door. I certainly hoped it was.

"Um…" I managed to say, intimated by his size and momentarily forgot what he asked.

The boy didn't seem bothered by my lack of speaking and went for the door, speaking casually as if we were friends:

"It's always hard to open it in the winter. It's so cold, you know."

I nodded to his back, not sure what to reply, and watched as he tried a few times before managing to push it open. The boy turned around with a satisfied smirk and held the door open for me.

"Thanks." I mumbled, my face still hot and passed him to finally get inside. The warmth hit me like a wall and my body sighed in satisfaction. He followed and the door slammed shut with a loud bang.

I stopped right inside of the door, staring around me.

We had stepped into the entrance hall. It was so huge that my entire father's house had fitted into it. The stone-walls were lit by torches and the roof was so high that you could barely see it. Right in front of us was an elegant, wide staircase that led to the other floors.

A few other students walked up and down that stairs-case casually and passed us, talking quietly, some of them throwing side-glances at me. I assumed that the rest of the student body was still sleeping.

"I don't think I recognize you." The boy suddenly mused next to me and I jumped with a small yelp. I had completely forgotten he was there and it surprised me that he was. "Sorry." He smirked and shrugged his huge shoulders. He casually brushed some snow from his shoulder. "Are you new?" he added.

But before I could answer a voice called "Yo, Emmett" and the boy looked up, his eyes searching for whomever that spoke. He looked back at me, smirking.

"Sorry. I have to go." He told me, touching my shoulder in a goodbye gesture. "See you around." He left, his figure hovering over everybody else as he went.

I sighed and looked after him as I considered what to do next. Obviously I wouldn't find anything in a school huge as this one and I didn't know anybody here that could help me.

My only option was to look on my key and try to find my room on my own. There had to be signs or something somewhere…

My key said **5011 **and it didn't encourage me that the number was so high. I wondered what floor that was on.

People stared at me curiously, the newcomer, as I passed them and I understood that new students weren't that common. That didn't encourage me either, because it meant that everybody would already know each other and I would be the lonely outsider. But that was a later problem…

When I reached the third floor which, according to a small, strict sign on the wall, contained rooms **3000 – 3050**, I groaned quietly and climbed another stair-case to the fourth floor.

At the fifth floor I smelled food and I assumed someone, a student, was baking in their dorm. I continued to the next floor, sweat slowly covering my body.

The last floor, the sixth, was where I was going to live. Room 5011, I thought, my stomach twisting nervously to see my new room and home. By now I was a little breathless. The corridor seemed to be miles long and when I finally reached my door I sighed in relief and searched for my key.

I knew I would have a roommate. A roommate that probably was asleep for the moment as it was still morning and I reminded myself to be quiet when I turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open for the first time.

It was, as expected, dark in the hall that met me and it took a while before my eyes got use to it. I didn't dare to turn on any lights. Carefully I slipped off my shoes that were covered in snow and made sure that they were strictly on the doormat. I hung my jacket on a hook on the wall and was surprised to find so many other jackets there – as if more than one other person lived here. I frowned, but didn't think more about, as I nervously entered the living room. Even in the dark I could tell that I was not living with a messy person. Everything seemed to be in place and the soft morning light added to its charm.

It was simple, but classy and I wondered if my new roommate had decorated it herself. Either way, I liked it regardless.

The huge window gave a beautiful view over the entire school ground and I stared in awe at the winter landscape. It was unbelievably gorgeous. Like I had thought when I was down there, the students in the snow only looked like small, black spots.

I was so lost in my stare that I didn't notice someone coming up behind me until her light voice said:

"You must be Isabella."

"Oh!" I gasped and jumped around to face the stranger. The girl was standing in the darkness, so I couldn't make out her face, but she looked very short and tiny. Her hair went to her shoulders and spiked in every direction. This must be my new roommate. "Um, yeah. Hi." I said uncertainly, my breathing still faster than normal because of the surprise.

The girl stepped into the light, a warm smile on her pretty face. Her eyes were friendly and midnight blue.

"I'm Alice. Alice Cullen." she said and moved closer to me in quick, rhythmic movements. Before I knew it I was caught in a bone crushing hug and was surrounded by a sweet, girly scent. "I'm so happy to finally have a roomie." Alice Cullen said cheerfully and pulled away, still smiling, her eyes dancing with excitement.

I couldn't help but smile back.

"I hope your trip went well." Alice said kindly and eyed me up and down. I blushed. "You are so pretty." she added, unashamed. My cheeks became even redder.

"So, how do you like the place? Pretty nice, isn't it? I decorated it myself in the beginning of the term. You should've seen it before – it was hideous! Seriously. But if you want to do any changes-"Alice continued to babble on and took a few steps away from me to point at certain details in the room. Her voice didn't even seem to pause to breathe.

I had never met a person as talkative as her.

Alice showed me around our dorm enthusiastically as if she was trying to sell the place and told me everything that she had done and planned on doing with it. I nodded to every suggestion, noting that she obviously knew what she was talking about.

We had a kitchen, two bedrooms with their own bathrooms and wardrobes and then the living room. The dorm was medium size and very comfortable and welcoming, especially with my roommates own decorations. I definitely liked it.

Alice's room was very pink and girly, but in a fashionable, mature way. Her wardrobe barely had room for all her clothes and, blushing, I realized that she must be rich, like everyone else here.

Alice showed me my room last and told me that it had been sad nobody used that room until now.

It looked very much like a hotel room – impersonal and white. It had a bed, two bedside tables, a nice television and, to my delight, a window with the same view as in the living room. Just like in Alice's room, I had my own bathroom with toilet, sink and shower and huge wardrobe. My clothes wouldn't even fill half.

"I didn't want to decorate this room." Alice said when I threw my suitcase on the bed and tried to picture the room as mine.

"Why?" I asked, shyly.

She shrugged, smiling, and casually stepped into the room, hands in her jeans pockets.

"It wasn't mine, after all." Alice said, a tone of frustration coloring her voice. I realized that she very much had liked to design this room, too.

"You have a very… um, good taste." I managed to compliment her. My cheeks reddened.

"Thanks." Alice smiled wider and her eyes twinkled.

We talked for a few more minutes and then Alice left me to let me unpack. It wouldn't take that long.

I hung the very few clothes I owned in the wardrobe and unpacked the three books I had brought with me. There was no bookcase in the room, so I decided to put them on one of the bedside tables.

Only a few minutes later I was done and pushed the suitcase under the bed. My teddy bear, Arnold, rested on top of it against my pillow. He was my oldest friend and very good listener.

Uncertain what to do next, I slowly moved towards the kitchen where I heard Alice making breakfast. It suddenly hit me that she was awake this early.

"Um, do you always wake up this early?" I asked quietly when I found her in front of the stove, turning pancakes cheerfully. Whatever she did, Alice seemed to do it in a good mood.

"Mostly." she nodded and smiled brightly, inhaling. "Mmm… I do like pancakes. I made for you, too."

"Thank you." I blushed; surprised that she would do that.

When I went to my other school I hadn't exactly been without friends. Angela and Jessica had been great to me and hung out with me whenever I called. But _they_ never called _me_ and they always preferred someone else if they wanted someone to talk with.

I had never had a best friend.

Alice finished making pancakes and I helped her make the table. We sat down in comfortable silence and started to eat. I hadn't realized I was hungry until now.

"So, Isabella-"Alice began.

"Bella." I interrupted automatically. When she had said it before my mind had simply forgotten that I despised that name.

"Bella. Alright….So, what's your story?" she asked, smiling friendly, chewing.

I had never liked to speak about myself so I kept it short, telling her about my mom and dad's divorce ("Oh, I'm sorry." Alice said), how I had lived alone with Charlie and shortly about my old school.

Alice was a very good listener and didn't interrupt once, only showed genuine interest and nodded at the right places. I slowly felt myself relaxing a little around her.

When I was done, she said:

"Well, I'm very glad you're here now. It's been terribly depressing to live her on my own. My brothers keep teasing me about it-"

"You have brothers?" I asked, curious.

I didn't have any brothers or sisters myself and had always been jealous of those who had.

"Yes." Alice nodded, snorting and rolling her eyes. "Two. They live one floor down, thank god."

I smiled. If they were anything like the way Alice seemed to be I was sure I'd like them. Because I knew I definitely liked Alice already.

We did the dishes together as we had finished eating and it felt odd to have someone to share everything with.

When I lived at Charlie's I had been the one who did all the choirs around the house. Cooking, doing the dishes, laundry and cleaning. Alice seemed enthusiastic to do it, just like with everything else, and I was sure I would never have to do any housework on my own again.

"So, have you spoken to our dorm manager yet?" Alice asked when we had finished the dishes.

I frowned, confused.

"No? Am I supposed to?"

"Yeah. You have to tell her you're here. She will go through the rules for you; you will have to sign them. Then she'll probably give you your schedule – I hope we have classes together!" Alice finished, cheerfully. "And I can totally show you around later if you want."

I did want that. But it was still early morning and we didn't want to bother anyone, so we decided to meet our dorm manager first, wait in our dorm for an hour or two and then go on our tour.

"The classes start at nine." Alice informed me, as she slipped her small feet into a pair of high heels.

I had only brought on pair of shoes, my converse, and my boots that I wore when I got here. My boots were still wet from the snow, so I picked out my converse and quickly slid them on.

Alice wore fashionable clothes and looked like a full-time model next to me, but at the time I tried to ignore it and smile bravely back at her in the mirror.

"Um, why do you have so many jackets?" I said and laughed nervously.

Alice grinned.

We left our dorm, Alice locking the door behind us.

The hallway was slowly starting to fill with more students as they woke up and I was glad I hadn't arrived now. They knocked on each other's doors, joking and shouting to each other, and most of them nodded, smiled or said hello to Alice as we passed. Just like I thought she was obviously a popular one.

"Where is the dorm manager's room?" I mumbled quietly to Alice.

"Over there." she replied lightly and pointed.

We knocked three times on the dorm manager's door and then waited. I was nervous, by some reason, and my stomach twisted uneasily. Alice seemed perfectly at ease, as if she did this everyday and smiled at me.

The door opened after only a minute and an old lady with glasses and a friendly smile looked down on us. I understood immediately why Alice had seemed so calm.

"Hello, little dears. Is everything alright?" she asked us, her eyes seeming to look for possible injuries on us.

"Yes. Everything is fine, thanks, Ms Mason." Alice replied, giving the lady a brilliant smile. "This is Bella. Bella Swan."

The lady, Ms Mason, turned to look at me and her smile widened when she seemed to understand.

"Ah, of course! Our new student. Yes, you were to arrive today. Please, come in…"

She opened her door wider and let us inside.

As Alice had predicted, she went through the rules and I signed them. They weren't unusual, only normal school policy.

She spoke on for about twenty minutes, explaining and showing me my schedule. Alice smiled and informed me that we shared most of our classes.

"And if you have any questions or troubles, please do not hesitate to come to me, okay?" Ms Mason finished finally when she led us to the door. I nodded and promised to come to her if I had any problems.

"She's like our mom when we're here." Alice told me when we went back to our dorm a few seconds later. I laughed, uncertain if she was joking or not. "Every floor has their own dorm manager. She's been mine since I started here my freshmen year."

We came back to our dorm and I went to my room to leave my schedule, my new notepad and my new pencil that Ms Mason had given to me. Alice, cheerful and full of energy like she had been all the short time I had known her, followed me. She spoke about all the classes, telling me her favorite teachers and the best way to spend the weekends.

"…and there's a mall not that far away from here. We have to go shopping there sometime!" she finished. I smiled, a blush spreading on my cheeks again and nodded, looking down. It's not like I had the money to shop anything but necessities, like toilet stuff and new clothes when the old ones didn't fit anymore, but I could watch her shop if she wanted me there.

"So, um, you never told me anything about you." I said suddenly, realizing I didn't know more about her than I had learned myself and she knew so much about me already.

Alice smiled and shrugged. She sat on my bed, legs crossed and I stood against my wall, watching her.

"Well, I grew up in California, actually." she began, casually. "But when I was twelve, and my oldest brother was 14 and starting his freshmen year, my parents wanted to move here." Alice shrugged. "My brother wanted to go to a boarding school - don't ask me why - and my parents chose this one because it was so close to home. He came home almost every day anyway, but he still went to school here and slept here at night. Then I became 14 and started here, as well." She shrugged again, smiling up at me.

"But why didn't you go to a regular school?" I asked.

"Like I said, it's really close to home anyway. It's only behind this forest." Alice pointed outside at the forest surrounding the school. "My mom's not really happy about it and not my dad either, but they want us to make our own choices, you know." she smiled lovingly and I could hear how much she loved them. I felt a pang of jealousy at how easy her life seemed, but I regretted it at once.

If anyone deserved a good life it was someone like Alice.

We were quiet for a few minutes, both seeming lost in thought, and then Alice jumped up from my bed.

"I have some homework to do before our tour and school today. See you in a few."

She danced out of my room, shutting the door when she went and I heard her walk to her own room across the hall.

I sighed and went over to my bed and put my head in my pillow, face down and rested my body against the warm covers.

**That's chapter one. How did you like it? I promise that Edward will be in the next chapter! Be patient ;) **

**Please review and leave your thoughts - it always makes me write faster and better, I swear. The next chapter is already finished, though, so give me some good reviews and I will post it faster than Edward can run!**

**Thanks for reading.**

**xx, Tillie **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much for your reviews on the first chapter! I hope you enjoy the second... As promised, a certain Edward Cullen will appear in this chapter :) **

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

It was eight when Alice stormed out of her room, apologizing and telling me that she lost track of time.

We hurried out of our dorm, through the hallway and down to the first floor.

Alice toured me around the entire school, showing me the classrooms, the cafeteria, the lounge, the private pool and spa, and she even pointed out where all her friends lived. She pointed and explained; giving background information about every place or room she showed me and didn't ever seem to grow bored of it.

My feet were so tired when we came to the fifth floor that Alice had to pull me along with violence.

"…this is the last stop, and then we have to go back to our dorm and get our stuff. It's almost nine." Alice said and then gesticulated towards the door on her left side and then the door across from it. "This is where my brothers live."

I heard loud music from both of the dorms and laughing voices. They seemed full of energy in the mornings, just like their sister.

"Alright, let's go, or we'll be late." Alice said and smiled lightly.

We almost ran back to our dorm and got our bags and school stuff. My stomach was filled with butterflies and I constantly swallowed nervously.

Thankfully, my first class would be with Alice, so at least there would be someone there that wasn't a complete stranger to me.

"You'll be fine." Alice comforted me, as if she knew my thoughts when we were walking down the stairs to go to our class on the first floor. I nodded, but my head growled in disagreement and my stomach continued to be nervous.

Most people that passed us always said hello to Alice and then looked at me with raised eyebrows eyes, probably wondering what I was doing with the cute girl next to me. I was a totally different creature, almost like from a different planet.

We entered the classroom together and I licked my lips nervously when I saw how many other students that were already there. The teacher stood at the front desk, looking through his papers.

Alice smiled reassuringly at me and pulled me along to a table where already two people sat.

"Hi, Joe. Hi, Nick." she greeted her two friends and sat down with them. I followed quickly, hoping that they wouldn't notice me. My face was red as a tomato and I felt the stares from my new classmates in my neck.

"Oh, hi, Alice." The two boys replied at the same time when they saw Alice. They were identical – black hair, dark eyes and glasses.

"This is Bella." Alice introduced me, nodding towards me with a huge smile. "She's my new roommate."

The twin's eyes went to me.

"Hi, there." One of them said. "I'm glad Alice has finally gotten a roomie. Perhaps her brothers will stop teasing her about it now." He laughed.

I blushed, but smiled softly.

"Hi." I said.

"I'm Joe."

"And I'm Nick."

"But we won't be too mad if you say the wrong names in the beginning."

"I did." Alice told me and smiled. "But then I learned that Joe is the smart one and Nick the quiet one."

I doubted I would ever remember who was who and I hoped that they truly wouldn't be mad if I happened to call them by the wrong name.

"So, you're new, huh?" One of the twins said, for the moment I remembered him as Joe. "That's tough."

"She'll be fine." Alice assured them and me, before sending me a confident smile.

"Still tough." The other one, Nick, agreed with his brother. "How long have you been here?"

"I came this morning." I said.

"Hey, Alice!" I heard someone call and Alice turned around to say hello to whoever called. When she turned back the teacher had just straightened up and looked up over the class.

"Attention, please. Listen up." He called out. "The class begins now."

The lesson passed slowly and I tried to keep up with everything the others did as good as I could. Alice helped me a lot and the teacher, Mr Kein, was aware I was new and explained everything twice when he saw I didn't understand. I thought I did fairly well and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

"You're doing well." One of the twins, Nick I thought, mumbled encouragingly when the class was almost over and we were writing down everything Mr Kein wrote on the board. "On my first day I was so nervous I couldn't do anything but stammer and break things."

I smiled widely at him and he returned it softly.

"First class is done." Alice said cheerfully and touched my shoulder comfortingly, when we left the classroom ten minutes later. "That was okay, wasn't it?"

I nodded at her and smiled.

"You'll be fine on your own now, right?" Alice asked, uncertainly. "I have cheer practice every Monday and Friday. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." I said. "I'll be fine."

I didn't know Alice was a cheerleader, but it didn't surprise me at all.

Surely, I could manage on my own now, right?

I smiled at Alice when she walked away from me, waving, and watched her disappear through the crowd of students.

With a sigh, nervous to be alone in my next class, I tried to remember where the math classroom was from my tour with Alice. I was pretty sure it was somewhere around here…

But after a few seconds of looking I realized I had no idea where it was.

Naturally, being me and a big fan of panicking, I panicked.

I was so upset and focused on all the doors around me that I didn't see the person I walked right into.

With a surprised yelp I fell to the ground and at the same time I heard a gasp when the other person also went to the floor.

"I'm so sorry-"I began, my face going hot. This was so typical me. I heard a sigh and the sound of the other person standing up.

"That's quite alright." A smooth, velvet voice replied, sounding amused.

A strong hand took a hold of my arm and pulled me to my feet. I straightened my shirt and my hair and tried not to let the tears fall of embarrassment. My entire body felt hot and I wished that I could disappear through earth.

I heard a few by-standers, on their way to class, laughing at the scene.

"It wasn't your fault." The same male voice said softly.

"Yes, it was. I'm such a klutz." I sighed, looking up at the strangers face.

Oh my lord. He was gorgeous. Bronze-hair, green eyes, long lashes and a muscular body.

He looked at me, a smirk playing on his lovely lips.

This boy was gorgeous and the look in his eyes told me he knew it.

"Well, it was nice seeing you this way." He grinned. I blushed deeper and dropped my gaze to the floor. "See you around… I hope." he added in a whisper and I shuddered unwillingly.

His footsteps walking away from me made me look up. I stared after him, completely stunned, and then I shook my head, focusing on the task ahead.

When Alice caught up with me at lunch I had a detention note in my hand. I showed it to her and she immediately asked me what happened.

"I was five minutes late. I couldn't find the classroom. I have detention on Friday afternoon." I said, awkwardly.

Alice sighed.

"I'm sorry. I should've showed it to you before I left."

"It's not your fault." I said, smiling at her. She smiled back and told me cheerfully that all of our following classes today would be together.

We ate lunch together in the cafeteria and Alice introduced me to some more of her friends. She seemed to know basically everyone.

Most of them told me that it was nice to have a new student at the school and that it was nice to meet me, while a few of them only glared at me when Alice said my name and smirked evilly. That made me embarrassed and very self-conscious, but Alice always seemed to find a way to make me smile again. She was already starting to feel like a very close friend.

Only once or twice my thoughts went to the good-looking boy I had accidently bumped into. Call me a typical girl, but believe me, it wasn't easy to forget that hair, or eyes or smile…

My first day at the school was generally good. I followed the classes alright, the teachers seemed nice and most of all I liked my dorm and my roommate.

This day had been a lot better than I thought it would be and when Alice and I returned to our dorm after all our classes I told Alice this. She laughed.

"I'm glad to hear that." she said.

Even if it sounds unbelievable, I already had more homework than I was comfortable with and as soon as me and Alice reached our room we had to start studying at once. We asked each other things and helped each other, but other than that we sat in comfortable silence and worked.

The sky had started to darken outside and I heard people screaming and playing in the snow again now when the classes were over. It was relaxing to hear them laugh and shout to each other and I finished my homework's before Alice did.

She smiled at me when I stood up, muttered "Already ahead of me.", and asked me if I could get her a glass of water.

I went for the kitchen and started to fill a glass with water, when a knock on the door made me jump slightly. It took me a moment to realize that someone was outside of it and wanted to come in and I rushed towards the hall, shouting to Alice:

"I'll get it!"

"Mmm…" Alice said, distracted, her thoughts on her work. I wrenched the door open, curious as to whom was visiting.

The same boy that had helped me open the door this morning was leaning against the door frame, the familiar grin on his face. His huge muscles were even more obvious now that he was only wearing a T-shirt.

"Well, you could open this door on your own." He smirked, amused. I blushed furiously and wondered if he was only here to make fun of me. As if reading my mind, he added: "Sorry, I'm only here to talk to my sis. Hey, Ali!?"

Without asking, he walked into the dorm, shutting the door behind him. I gaped. He was her brother.

"What, Emmett?" I heard Alice's irritated reply and I realized that it was the first time I heard her use that tone. She was always so cheerful and happy, but obviously not when she spoke to her brother.

Alice's brother, that she called Emmett, casually walked into our living room and I followed nervously, not certain what to do. He smirked down at her on the floor.

"After with the homework, sis?" he teased and plopped down on our couch. Alice muttered something under her breath and then seemed to decide to ignore him and went back to her homework.

Emmett turned to me; his eyes amused, and extended a huge hand. I took it, gulping at how strong it felt.

"I just realized we haven't been introduced." He glanced at Alice, obviously blaming her for that and then looked at me again, grinning. "I'm Emmett Cullen. Alice's oldest brother."

"I'm Bella Swan. Alice's roommate." I replied nervously and tried not to grimace in pain when he shook my hand.

"Awesome!" Emmett chuckled and let go off me. "Lil sis, finally got herself a little friend."

I found his words amusing considering Alice seemed to be friends with everybody.

Alice sighed from the floor.

"Excuse my brother, Bella." she said seriously. "He's a little retarded."

Emmett laughed a booming laugh.

"Whatever."

Alice sat up, groaning and turned to glare at her brother, her eyebrows raised. She didn't look mad – I didn't think she could look mad even if she wanted to – but she clearly didn't enjoy his company at the moment.

"What do you want, Em? Why are you storming our dorm when I'm trying to study?"

"Can't a brother only visit his lovely sister without having any intention with it?" Emmett asked, innocently, but his lips twitched.

Alice didn't reply, she didn't seem to think there was a need to. I smiled, finding them amusing.

"Fine." Emmett sighed and shrugged his huge shoulders. "I only came by to ask if you guys wanted to join me, Edward, Rose and Jazz for dinner at six?"

"Where?" Alice asked, throwing a glance at me.

"The restaurant." Emmett said.

I frowned in confusion. A restaurant could be any restaurant, but Alice seemed to know what he meant.

"Maybe. I'll call you when me and Bella have talked about it."

I blushed then, realizing that Emmett was inviting me too.

Emmett grinned at me, winked and rose to his feet.

"Fine, you nerd. But call me as soon as you know, alright? Bye, Bella."

The door slammed hard after him as he left.

Alice heaved a deep sigh, but I saw that she was smiling. She bent down to continue her homework, but she muttered:

"I'm sorry about that. We usually don't bring him out around people."

I giggled.

"What do you think, though, about the dinner? You really don't have to go. It's your first night here. I'm sure you want to take it easy." Alice said, her eyes locking with mine. She was smiling cheerfully; back to the old Alice I had gotten to know today.

"No, I mean, if you don't mind me coming… "I muttered awkwardly. "I would love to, um, you know, come join you…"

"Yay!" Alice sang and she seemed to forget all about her homework when she stood up and came over to hug me. "Of course I don't mind! It will be a lot more fun with you there."

Her enthusiasm made me smile uncertainly and I felt warm at the thought of her being happy for something as simple as me joining her and her brothers for dinner. That reminded me of my little confusion earlier.

"Who are Rose and… um, Jazz?" I asked. Alice had only mentioned that she had two brothers. Were they two other relatives?

"Oh, Rosalie and Jasper Hale are our closest friends. They're twins. Their parents are friends with our parents. We've known each other since birth." Alice told me, her eyes twinkling. I noticed that she blushed slightly when she mentioned Jasper's name and it made me smile.

"That sounds cool." I mumbled, feeling a little nervous again. I imagined myself sitting at a table with Emmett, Alice, her other brother, Jasper and Rosalie. They had all known each for ages and I had known Alice and Emmett for a day – the others I hadn't even met. That would be uncomfortable and so awkward.

Alice seemed to notice my unease and patted my arm.

"Emmett likes you already, Bella. I like you. The others will, too, I promise." she smiled confidently at me and I managed to smile back.

After she made a quick call to tell Emmett we were both joining them for dinner, Alice finished her homework in a few minutes and went to get ready for dinner. She didn't look the least tired and I wondered if her energy would ever end. Personally, I was exhausted. The day had been very long, with many new impressions and a lot of pressure. I couldn't wait to come back to our dorm later and go to bed.

I took a shower to freshen up a little bit for the dinner and changed to a new pair of jeans and a T-shirt. Still casual.

Alice met me in the hall, her hair also wet from a shower and new, fresh clothes on. She looked like a pretty, tiny little princess and I wondered if she had a boyfriend. Who wouldn't want to go out with her?

"Ready?" she asked, smiling brightly and checking her lip-gloss in the mirror. I nodded and pulled my arms through the jacket and watched her do the same. Alice walked out first from our dorm and I took the keys from my pocket and slowly locked the door behind me, swallowing hard.

I was ready to meet the Cullen's and Hale's.

**Dun-dun-dun. How did you like chapter 2? What do you want to happen in chapter 3 and 4? Leave me a review and let me know what you think! Again, reviews make me write faster and better, I promise. Chapter 3 is pretty much finished already, so it will be posted SOON ;) **

**Thanks for reading, you guys!**

**xx, Tillie**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for your reviews on the last chapter. If you have any questions about the story or me or whatever just ask, okay? :) I hope you like this chapter...**

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

We took Alice's yellow Porsche to the restaurant. It turned out to be a fancy place where I immediately felt underdressed and I almost turned around and ran back to the school.

But Alice smiled reassuringly at me as she led me through the door and when the waiter greeted us, saying: "Good evening, Miss Cullen!" I understood that she and her brothers were regular customers here.

The waiter and Alice exchanged a few words and then he led us through the restaurant towards our table.

Emmett and the others were already there and seemed to be in a heated discussion about something, using loud voices and laughing once in a while. They seemed to be a relaxed crew and I noticed that other people in the restaurant looked at them with almost admiration in their eyes.

"Hey, guys." Alice said cheerfully when we reached the table. The waiter bowed slightly and disappeared.

"Hey, you two." Emmett grinned and stood up to pull out chairs for us.

I blushed, mumbled a thanks and sat down next to him and a boy with blond hair, looking down on my hands awkwardly.

"Guys, this is Bella Swan, my new roommate. Bella, this is Rosalie, Jasper and Edward."Alice introduced us.

For the first time, I looked up to see the other three.

Rosalie sat across from me next to Alice and was blond and gorgeous, a smug expression on her pretty face. Her twin-brother, Jasper, seated next to me, also had golden blond hair and a friendly expression on his beautiful face. I felt shocked that some people could actually look like that.

But what shocked me even more was the boy, Alice's brother, Edward. I had met him before. My mouth opened to a small o.

It was the boy I had bumped into in the hallway, the bronze-haired god. He smirked smugly at me.

"Hello." he said, sounding amused. My face turned a brighter color and I quickly looked away from him, closing my mouth.

"Um, hi."

Could this be any more humiliating?

I felt so embarrassed that I had had those thoughts about Alice's brother earlier that I couldn't meet her gaze.

Alice didn't seem to notice my embarrassment, though, and exclaimed:

"See, I told you I wouldn't be without roommate forever."

The other's laughed.

Trying to avoid looking at Edward, I read through the menu and pretended to decide what to eat. The others were already deep in conversation again, seeming perfectly at ease that I was there. I wished that they would ignore me for the rest of the dinner so that I wouldn't have to speak and embarrass myself further, but no such luck.

Alice seemed to think I wanted to be in the conversation and turned to me and asked:

"So, what do you think about the school so far, Bella?"

Everyone at the table turned to look at me. I blushed and looked down again when I replied:

"It seems nice."

Emmett laughed loudly and I saw in the corner of my eye that other guests in the restaurant looked up to stare at him.

"Yeah, right!" He chuckled. "Nice!" he repeated. "That's funny."

"You're Alice's age, right?" Jasper asked next to me, turning to smile at me friendly. I nodded slowly and looked at him shyly.

"We have to go shopping someday." Rosalie suddenly said to Alice. "It's been so long!"

"You were at the mall last weekend." Jasper reminded them. Alice and Rosalie smirked at him.

"Yes, that's like forever!" Alice rolled her eyes, but I saw that her cheeks reddened a little bit when she spoke to him.

Emmett and Edward had gone into a discussion about a snowball fight they had had and I tried not to listen to them, especially because it annoyed and embarrassed me how appealing I found Edward's voice. I turned to listen to Jasper, Rosalie and Alice instead and they happily included me.

It was easier than I thought to eat dinner with Alice's family and friends. The waiter came to take our orders and when he left all the conversation and jokes picked up again. When I wasn't blushing or feeling awkward, I actually felt myself slowly relax.

Of course, my relaxation would quickly vanish if I felt Edward's gaze on me and my skin would go red as a tomato. Thankfully, nobody else seemed to notice, only Edward himself who continued to smirk smugly and wink at me occasionally.

When our food arrived and we all started to eat, Rosalie turned to me for the first time, asking:

"Why are you eating that?"

I couldn't meet her eye when I replied that it seemed good. Truthfully, it had been the cheapest meal on the menu and I couldn't afford anything else, but I wouldn't admit that in front of all of them.

She huffed and looked away again, easing into conversation with Emmett, but I had the feeling she didn't like me that much.

Jasper, the other hand, actually seemed to like me. He and Alice were the two that I talked to the most during the dinner.

Edward hadn't spoken another word to me and he didn't show any signs that he was interested to. He mostly only spoke with Emmett and when he didn't he sat in silence and ate casually.

Alice brought up shopping again after not too long.

"What about tomorrow night? Or maybe the day after tomorrow? What do you think, Bella?" she asked me seriously.

"I don't know." I mumbled awkwardly.

"Tomorrow." Rosalie replied for me instead and I heard Alice agree quietly.

Once during the night Emmett brought up our little encounter outside the school doors. My cheeks blossomed red, but Alice and the other's only laughed.

The night passed slowly and I felt my eyelids going heavier and heavier. The others at the table never seemed to get tired and spoke on and on about different things. It hit me that this was probably something they did every night when they could.

When the clock on the wall had turned nine, however, Jasper finally sighed:

"We should probably head back. I have a big test tomorrow."

They all agreed and I tried to stop myself from sighing in relief when we stood up.

Rosalie and Emmett left together first, in a hushed conversation, and waved at us before disappearing through the door. Jasper and Edward followed them, smiling and telling us goodnight.

Me and Alice walked out to her car, neither of us saying anything but Alice humming lightly.

It was snowing lightly again. I yawned.

"They like you, you know." Alice told me when we raced down the streets again, on our way back. My hands were clutching the seat, terrified by her driving.

I nodded, shyly, not knowing what to reply.

"I don't bring friends to dinner often." she said lightly. I felt confused as to why she would pick me of all her friends to go to dinner with them, but didn't ask.

We arrived back at school a few minutes later and I saw Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett and Edward step out of a silver Volvo in another parking spot and slowly make their way back to the main entrance. They poked each other and snickered and looked like one big, happy family. I was jealous.

"C'mon, let's get inside. It's cold!" Alice said and pulled on my arm.

When we were back in our dorm, when I had said my goodnights to Alice and I was in my bed ready to sleep in my new room for the first time, I realized that I should probably call Renee.

I really didn't feel like speaking to my mother right now, but it was best to get it over with. She wouldn't be very interested and press for that many details, so the call wouldn't last long.

"Hello?" an irritated voice answered on the other end. I sighed quietly.

"Hi, mum. It's me."

"Bella? Is that you?" My mother said. I almost rolled my eyes. How many other people would call her mom?

"Yeah, it's me. Listen, I just wanted to tell you that I arrived safely and that I'm still alive." I played with the covers on my bed, my eyes dry and begging for sleep.

"Oh, well that's good." Renee replied, her voice not sounding the least interested.

"Yeah. Well, the place is great and I really-"

"I'm sorry, honey, I can't talk right now. I have to go." she interrupted me.

I blinked, my throat tight.

"Of course. Goodnight, mom. Take care." I mumbled.

"Bye."

The line went dead when she hung up and against my will, tears filled my eyes and my throat felt swollen.

I cried myself to sleep that night, hoping Alice was asleep.

* * *

The next morning was sunny and when I stepped out of my bed it was 08:00 AM. Surely, Alice had been awake for hours already. When I shot a quick glance out through my window, I saw that the snow glimmered in the sun. It was beautiful. I decided that after my classes today I would go for a walk.

I dressed quickly, not bothering too much what I put on, and made sure that I looked a little presentable before I walked out of my room towards the kitchen.

A humming Alice greeted me from the kitchen table where she was eating her breakfast. Her nose was in a book and she looked interested by it, so I only mumbled good morning and filled a bowl with cereal.

It still felt a little awkward around my roommate, especially after last night's dinner and my thoughts about Edward, so I ate my breakfast alone in the living room.

When I was done I went back to the kitchen and started to wash my bowl. Alice slammed her book shut and turned to me, smiling.

"How are you this morning, roomie? Slept well?"

I smiled shyly and nodded.

"Yeah, thanks." I lied.

"Of course you didn't." Alice said casually and walked around the table with her plate. She came to wash it in the sink next to me. "But tonight will be easier, surely."

"Yeah." I mumbled.

Alice looked over at me, smirking amusedly. It reminded me so much of Edward's smile that I blushed and had to look away.

"You don't really talk much, do you?" she asked lightly.

"No." I said truthfully. We both finished washing our plates and I turned off the water.

"Well-"Alice began. "I can do the talking for both of us." She winked and disappeared out of the kitchen to her room.

I smiled after her and shook my head slightly, before I also went back to my room. My schedule was on my bedside table and I checked it anxiously. The classes today seemed alright. I had English and Biology before lunch and then literature class and gym in the afternoon. Gym was probably worst, considering only walking over a flat surface was challenging enough for me. But I wouldn't worry about it until after lunch.

"Knock, knock." Alice sang and burst through my door. I turned around and watched her dance into my room, cell phone in hand. "How's it going? Listen, I'm going to head out with some friends before classes today. Do you want to come?" she asked, eyes dancing.

I managed to smile bravely.

"No, thanks. I'm just going to stay here and take it easy. You go."

"Okay." Alice said, uncertainly, and looked at me carefully. "Will you be okay, then?"

"Of course, Alice. I'll see you later, right?"

"Count on it." she smiled and winked. "See you in English." Alice waved cheerfully and closed my door behind her again. I sighed and listened to her steps in the hall, heard her pick up her keys and then slam the door after her. Alice locked the door and her high heels clicked against the floor when she walked away from our dorm.

I sat down on my bed, feeling pretty content to be alone for a while. Not that I didn't enjoy Alice's company, but a few minutes for myself in our silent dorm couldn't hurt.

Turning the television on in the living room, I leaned back against the couch and sighed contently. I was still tired from yesterday and I hoped that Alice had been right when she said that this night would be easier to sleep.

The minutes ticked by and before I knew it I had to turn off the television and go and get my stuff. Alice hadn't returned yet so I would probably have to walk down on my own to the English classroom.

However, it turned out that I wouldn't have to. When I stood in the hall in our dorm, pulling my shoes on, a knock on the door made me jump.

Alice wouldn't knock, she had a key, so I assumed one of her friends were here to see her.

I pushed the door open and revealed a grinning Emmett. In the hallway behind him our classmates ran from room to room and hurried to get ready for their classes.

"Good morning." Emmett said, his eyes twinkling the way Alice's always did.

"Um, hi." I blushed. "I mean, good morning."

He chuckled.

"Always so embarrassed." he snickered. "Anyway, Alice told me to escort you to class. I heard you got detention yesterday."

I looked down, awkwardly, and wondered how weird I must seem to him. Detention on my first day.

"You don't have to…" I began, but Emmett interrupted me, shaking his head.

"Oh no. There's no trouble…. And I kind of enjoy making you blush." He chuckled. On cue, my face turned red and he laughed harder. "We need to get going, red-face. Are you ready?"

"Um, yeah." I mumbled and picked up my keys from the floor. He moved away so that I could walk out of the dorm and lock the door behind me.

"Awesome. Let's go." Emmett said enthusiastically. I wondered if enthusiasm was something that went in the family.

It felt awkward to walk next to Alice's brother down the hallway. Not only because I didn't really know him or because people stared in awe when we walked by, but also because his size made me feel so tiny next to him.

Emmett, the other hand, seemed perfectly content and talked about random things in a loud voice. He didn't seem to care at all that everyone could hear him.

"English classroom, right?" he asked me when we stepped down to the first floor. I nodded and quickly followed him as he made his way through the thick crowd of students.

He stopped outside of the English classroom, telling me to wait there until the teacher showed up. I thanked him, still feeling awkward, but he only waved, telling me it was nothing, and said see you later before he went to his own class.

The teacher, Ms Alison, opened the door five minutes before nine. I hurried to find an empty table before they were all taken.

Alice ran into the classroom one minute before the class started and searched for something, smiling when she saw me. Instead of sitting with her friends that called her name, she walked up to me and took the chair next to mine. Again, I was confused as to why she would want to be with me instead of her friends, but felt happy regardless.

"Hey." she said breathlessly and dumped her books on the table.

"Hi." I smiled softly at her, trying to ignore the furious stares in my neck from Alice's friends.

"Did Emmett help you to get here?" Alice asked, brushing hair out of her face. It was obvious she had been outside; snow glimmered in her black hair and her cheeks were rosy red.

"Yeah." I mumbled. "You know you didn't have to-"

"It was nothing, Bella." Alice smiled. "I called Emmett when I left and he said he would gladly take you here."

"Well, thank you." I said, meeting her eyes.

"Well, you're welcome." she laughed and I joined in. It felt good to laugh and I realized I hadn't done it in a while.

"Good morning, class." Ms Alison said in a loud, clear voice and got everyone's attention. The classroom became silent. "Welcome to English class. We have a new student here today… Isabella Swan…"

At once, I hated Ms Alison.

**Yup, there it was, chapter 3! What do you think? I really love looooooooong, detailed reviews and just reviews at all.... so please leave me one! :)**

**Thanks so much for sticking with me and reading this chapter. **

**I have fun plans for this story, so stick around ;) **

**Until next time... **

**xx, Tillie**


	4. Chapter 4

**You wanted more Edward, you got more Edward ;) Enjoy... **

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

The school bell rang after English class. Biology was next for me. Alice showed me there before she left and I was happy to find that I was early and the classroom was almost empty. Almost, except for one person…

"Hi." The boy said, looking up at me with a boyish grin. He sat alone at the table in the back, his hands on a comic book.

"Um, hi." I said shyly, uncertainly, still standing in the doorway. The boy looked a little too young to be in my class and had a playful gleam in his eyes. His hair was black and to his shoulders.

"I'm Jacob." he told me, straightening up in his chair.

"I'm Bella." I replied, quietly.

We eyed each other for a second, not saying anything, until Jacob raised his eyebrows questioningly. I blinked and found that I was still standing in the door like an idiot.

Blushing, I stepped into the room and hesitated before I sat down at the table in front of the boy, Jacob.

It was only quiet for a second.

"You're new, right?" Jacob asked. It seemed rude to have my back towards him, so I turned around before I replied, with a shy smile:

"Yeah."

"Cool." he grinned. "So, how do you like the place?"

"It's…" I hesitated. "Okay, actually."

"Really?" Jacob laughed a careless, happy laugh. It was odd how the sound warmed my chest, made me smile unconsciously.

It looked like he was about to open his mouth to say something more, but just then the door opened and revealed the biology teacher, Mr Banner. He nodded at us and stepped forward to his desk.

I turned away from Jacob and looked at the door and watched our classmates' storm into the room.

Mr Banner came up to me before the class started and explained what they had been doing recently and what we would be learning now. He told me to keep up as good as I could and that he would help me with what I didn't understand.

"I'm sure he won't need to help ya." A voice whispered in my ear when he Mr Banner returned to his desk. Jacob. "You look like a smart one, Newbie." I smiled, but didn't reply or turn around.

Students continued to walk into the classroom and it started to become full. A girl with blond hair and lots of makeup whispered to her friend when they walked by:

"Someone needs to pay a visit to the mall." They looked at me and giggled furiously.

I blushed and looked down on my clothes, feeling very self-conscious. The worst part was that I recognized her as one of Alice's many friends…

And as if the world thought that humiliating me when I was already feeling self-conscious was amusing, a certain person walked into the classroom just when the bell rang. Edward Cullen.

Oh my goodness, he was in my biology class! And the seat next to me was the only empty one…

He realized this at the same time as me and smirked, amused.

Looking mouthwateringly good and smelling even better, Edward came to a stop in front of me. I noticed that the blond and all her friends were staring furiously at us.

"May I sit?" he asked, the smug smile never leaving his lips. Behind me I heard Jacob snort. I saw Edward's face tighten at the sound, but otherwise he seemed to try to ignore Jacob, by some reason.

"Um…" I blushed, feeling my heart-beat pick up. "Su-sure." I stuttered, which made my face redden even more.

Edward grinned; his eyes annoyingly amused, and slowly took the seat next to me. He readjusted himself constantly and it made him come even closer - it felt like he was teasing me.

I was so tense that I barely moved my eyes from Mr Banner at the board. Edward chuckled quietly next to me.

The class was a living hell. This was how I'd imagined my first day to be like. I was so uncomfortable and embarrassed where I sat and the electricity I felt radiating from my neighbor was both annoying and, against my will, exciting – I couldn't concentrate.

And more than that, every girl in the room seemed to hate me. It was as if I had _asked_ Edward to sit next to me. They were glaring angrily and narrowing their eyes and snorting whenever I looked.

Mr Banner finished the class precisely when the school bell rang and I sighed in relief, standing up quickly.

"That was interesting, wasn't it?" Edward mused, his voice sounding funny…. Like he was close to laughter.

I looked at him immediately, by some reason feeling panicky.

"What? What do you mean? What did you-? I don't know- What are you talking about?" I stammered in a high-pitched voice.

He knew. He knew what he did to me. Of course he knew. Oh god…

Edward chuckled, a seducing sound that gave me chills, and rose to his feet. He picked up his books from our table and stepped around it to stand right in front of me. I could barely breathe.

"I was talking about the class, Bella."

Then he smirked that special smirk and walked out of the classroom with the others. I stared after him, still not breathing.

A low whistle broke through my daze and I quickly looked around. The classroom was empty, only Jacob was still at his desk, gathering his books.

"That had been pretty fun to watch if it was anyone else than Cullen." he muttered and walked over to me. I frowned, confused, but didn't comment on his remark.

"Are you alright? You look funny." Jacob said and smiled at me. I nodded, gulping and almost laughed when I realized how ridiculous I was being.

"Sorry." I mumbled and started to organize my things and put them in my bag pack.

"Hey, that's okay, Newbie." Jacob said playfully. I couldn't help but smile. "Clearly you got a thing for the bad boy there, but it happens to every girl, doesn't it?" He laughed bitterly and sighed. Then he added, cheerfully: "And besides, you and I have a bigger problem."

"What?" I asked, a little worried. What could be worse than thinking your roommates brother was hot?

"Well-"Jacob started, shrugging, and followed me when I walked towards the door. I looked up at him, noting how tall he was. "We must be pretty messed up if we're the first ones here and then the last ones who leave."

I laughed loudly, a huge smile spreading over my face. Something about Jacob made me feel so happy and comfortable.

"Hey, roomie." Alice greeted me when I walked into our dorm on the afternoon. All our classes were over – I had actually survived gym with only a couple of bruises and many embarrassed apologies – and was now relieved that I had managed to get through my second day.

"Hey." I replied to Alice and removed my shoes.

It had turned out that all my classes today were with Jacob and we had stayed together, pretty much, all day. He was a very easy person to like and get along with.

But now a nice walk in the beautiful winter was waiting before dinner.

"I haven't seen you since English." Alice said and looked at me from the living room. She was on the floor, bent over her homework. "How did everything go today for you?"

"Good." I said, and peeked into the room, wanting to add something so that I wouldn't sound rude. "It was very, um, interesting."

"Great." Alice nodded, smiling brightly at me and then looked down on her work again, sighing. She looked tired, actually.

I moved on to my room and quickly looked through my closet for my warmest jacket.

"Where are you going?" Alice asked, sounding surprised, when I walked by the living room wearing my red thick jacket, gloves and a dark blue beanie.

"Um, out. Walking." I said, stopping mid-stepped to look at her uncertainly. "Why? Is that, um, okay?"

"Of course it is. You don't have to ask for my permission, Bella." she giggled and I smiled. "I was just wondering."

"Oh, okay."

I understood what had alerted her. A normal roomie probably who have told Alice where she was going without being asked. But I wasn't use to telling someone if I was going out.

Charlie had almost never been home and if he was he never asked.

"Well, bye." I waved awkwardly.

"Bye. Have fun." Alice smiled cheerfully.

When I came down to the first floor, blushed when I almost fell at the last step in the stairs, Jacob caught my eye and walked up to me.

"Hey, Newbie." Jacob said with the same boyish grin I'd seen in Biology. "Where are you going?"

"Um, out." I said, smiling shyly back at him, wondering why this would matter to him.

"Yeah, I can see that." he said and eyed my warm jacket and other outwear. I blushed and he laughed, amused. "But exactly where are you going?"

"I don't know." I shrugged, because I honestly didn't. "I'm just taking a walk before dinner."

At that moment, the blond girl from biology and her group of friends walked by. They glared at me, whispering excitedly with each other. I looked away, but Jacob had already caught my disturbed look and rolled his eyes, telling me:

"That's Jessica Stanley. How she managed to be in the same biology class as me and you is a mystery. She's dumb as a doorknob, trust me."

I laughed, feeling a little better.

"Seriously, ignore her." Jacob advised me. "She's probably just jealous because you sat next to her _boy_ today in class." He rolled his eyes again, a disgusted expression on his face.

"Oh. Edward is her boyfriend." I stated, being mad at myself for feeling a little sad at that thought. My stomach hardened.

"Oh no." Jacob shook his head, his eyes dark, but didn't explain further. "But about this walk…" He smirked, lightening up again. "As a new student, I'm sure you need a good guide to help you find things on the area."

"Maybe I do." I said teasingly and pretended to think about it. "But who should I ask…?"

"I can think of someone." Jacob winked.

We spent hours on the campus, playing in the snow and having a wild snowball fight. The guided tour we had both completely forgotten.

I couldn't remember ever laughing that hard or ever being that cold.

When his friends shouted from the fourth floor that we should go and have dinner, we laughed, shrugged and started to walk towards the school again.

We were both two wet messes, but with huge grins on our faces.

"That was fun." Jacob commented lightly while we walked, shaking his hair to remove all the snow from it.

"Yeah." I agreed, nodding. And I meant it.

"You're kind of growing on me, Newbie." he joked and I giggled. "Seriously, though, you're really cool, Bella."

It was the first time he called me Bella and it made me smile to hear it from him.

"Thanks. You're cool too, Jacob." I said.

He looked at me strangely, with an unreadable expression, before he smiled and looked forward again.

The sky was already pitch-black and I wondered how much the time really was. Even from the outside I could hear the sounds from the cafeteria where some students and teachers were having dinner.

At the fifth floor I saw a shadow in mine and Alice's window behind the curtains, a tall shadow that certainly didn't belong to my roommate, and I wondered if Alice had friends over.

"Do you want to eat with us?" Jacob asked me when we entered the entrance hall. The sounds from the cafeteria were even louder now when we were inside and I felt the scent of food. My stomach growled.

"Yes, please." I said, nodding at him. He smiled and called his friends on the cell, telling them to meet us in the cafeteria.

His two closest friends, Jared and Embry, were two fun types that I had quickly learned to like. Jacob had introduced us at lunch and when they joined us at our table in the cafeteria now they greeted me by my first name:

"Hey, Bella. Hi, Jake."

Their plates were filled with food and I wondered how they could eat that much.

The boys never stopped speaking, just like Alice and her friends and family hadn't, but it was a different mood at the table. It was more throwing food at each other and telling rude jokes, not so much having a conversation and discussing things. It felt easier and less awkward.

"You two are a mess." Embry stated once, chewing his food furiously, his mouth full.

"Yeah." Jared agreed. "Did you, like, play in the snow like first graders?"

I thought it was funny to be lectured in maturity by Jared and Embry who still laughed at farts, but didn't say anything.

Jacob shrugged, a playful grin on his friendly face.

"Yup." he said.

"Wow."

"Cute." Embry winked.

I blushed and me and Jacob looked away quickly.

Jared and Embry left after dinner, telling us something about an action movie on television and me and Jacob left for our dorms alone ten minutes later.

We spoke about nothing in particular on our way up and I asked what floor he was on. The sixth floor, like me, it turned out and we could walk all the way together.

I had never been that relaxed in another boy's company. There really was something about him that made me relaxed and that made me trust him.

When we were getting closer to our dorms, we started speaking about a book I had and that he wanted to read.

"You can barrow it, if you want." I offered and he immediately agreed.

So, we both walked towards mine and Alice's room, laughing and joking about silly things. I turned my key in the lock and pushed the door open.

At once I knew that Edward was there. Even though it was ridiculous, I could almost smell him and I could feel him in the air…

Apparently he and Emmett were both there with Alice, because I heard Emmett's booming laugh when me and Jacob entered the dorm.

Jacob tensed when he also heard the sound and I asked what was wrong.

"Why are _they_ here?" he whispered, his eyes narrowed when he looked at me and nodded towards the living room.

I frowned, trying to seem at ease while my heart was beating so hard that it almost hurt, and whispered back:

"Alice is my roommate."

I assumed he knew who she was. He did.

"Why didn't you tell me that you lived with a Cullen?" Jacob muttered, while he undid his shoes. I was confused as to why it would matter who I lived with, but let it be for the time…

We walked out of the hall and when we hurried to my room I carefully peeked into the living room when we walked by. I managed to see Alice and Emmett on the couch, talking loudly and pointing at the television, and Edward sitting on the floor next to them. They were watching a comedy it seemed, because they laughed constantly and it seemed as if they hadn't heard us come in.

Jacob and I stepped into my room and I grimaced slightly when I saw that all my clothes were all over the floor from when I was looking for my jacket earlier. He whistled quietly and smirked when I looked over at him.

The room still looked so impersonal and for the most part, except the little things I had brought with me, it was empty.

"Wow, I like what you've done with the place." Jacob joked.

"Here." I said and grabbed the book he wanted to borrow from my bedside table. He took it and read on the backside, grinning.

"Thanks. I've always wanted to check this out."

"I'm surprised you want to read it, actually." I said honestly. "I took you for more of a…. comic book guy." I thought about the comic I had seen him reading this morning.

Jacob nodded sheepishly and shrugged.

"I am. But sometimes I want to read books without pictures, too. When do you want it back?" he asked causally.

"You can borrow it as long as you want."

It was getting pretty late and I had some homework to do before bed, so Jacob didn't linger in my room for too long. He only stayed long enough to point out that my room could probably use some color or something.

Then we walked out into the hall again and he was just about to open his mouth and say goodbye and leave, when….

"Bella! We didn't hear you come in. Where have you-"Alice interrupted herself mid-sentenced when she saw who was with me. She stared, her eyes growing surprised and then suspicious.

Jacob didn't look much happier to see her than she was to see him and glared rudely.

"Um, oh, hello." Alice said to Jacob, uncomfortably, and looked behind her shoulder to the living room where here brothers were still watching television.

"Hi." Jacob replied curtly.

All three of us stood in silence for a while, an awkward and tense silence, and I wondered what the hell was going on.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Bella." Jacob said suddenly and smiled at me, but it looked a little forced. "Goodnight." He put his hand on the doorknob, but he didn't make it outside…

"What is he doing here?" A voice barked and I looked up quickly to find Edward glaring angrily at Jacob. I hated to admit that being mad suited him…It made him look so wild and even more irresistible. I gulped.

Jacob looked at Edward over his shoulder, hand still on the door, his eyes hateful.

"None of your business, Cullen." he hissed.

"The hell it isn't!" Edward shouted, furious. My mouth was open in shock. I stared from Jacob to Edward to Alice to Emmett, who now also joined the scene.

"What's going on here?" he said loudly and looked at Jacob and Edward. His mad voice made him seem even bigger and intimidating than before and I was surprised that Jacob didn't run the opposite way.

"I was just visiting my new friend, Cullen." Jacob spat and shot a quick glance at me.

"Your what!?" Edward screamed and stared at me, obviously even more mad at this.

"Guys-"Alice's tiny, light voice said softly. She was standing at the same place as before, her arms crossed and an unreadable expression on her cute face. "you should stop. Now."

Nobody said anything. Edward was breathing hard and loudly, Emmett stood like a body guard in front of his sister and me, and Jacob was staring furiously at Edward.

A few seconds passed, then Jacob huffed, nodded at me and slammed the door open and disappeared through it.

"Sorry about that, Bella." Alice mumbled softly and I looked at her, forcing a smile. Then I turned to look at the other two and noticed that they had gone back to the living room as if nothing had happened. I heard them speak in mutters to each other.

"Alice, what-"I began, curiously, but she hushed me and shook her head.

"Later, Bella." she promised and smiled a tight smile, before she nodded at me and followed her brothers back to the living room.

I had no desire to follow Alice and face Edward, so I went back to my room and made my homework. But the entire time my brain couldn't stop thinking about what just happened.

It was obvious that Jacob and The Cullens weren't that fond of each other.

**Nope, they really aren't and I will explain that later in the story. I hope you liked to read more Edward and also that you enjoyed Jacob coming along! Leave me a review if you're sweet and tell me what you think! **

**Merry Christmas until next time... :) Have a great one! **

**xoxo, Tillie**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm so sorry for the long wait! Thank you for sticking with me!**

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

"They just don't like each other, Bella."

"Just like that?"

"It's High School. It happens." Alice sounded off-handed on the surface, but I thought she seemed to be careful and on her guard.

We were sitting in the lounge on the first floor. It was lunch and while I caught up on some school-work, Alice was sending text messages with her blackberry.

Alice and I had known each other for five days now and it was Friday. Tomorrow was Saturday, finally.

"Okay." I said, deciding to drop the subject again.

After the confrontation with The Cullens and Jacob I had curiously asked Alice about it every day. She always told me things like: " They're boys, what do you expect?" or "Boys can be so competitive. It's nothing to worry about." But I had the feeling she wasn't completely telling me the truth.

Jacob and I hung out occasionally. When we were alone he was always so relaxed and fun – but whenever Alice or Edward or Emmett was near he acted cool and his eyes would go dark. The two sides of him were so very different and the fact that only the sight of The Cullens made him bring out his worst, I couldn't help but be curious as to why.

However, most of the time I was with Alice. It had been obvious already on my first day why Alice had so many friends and I was surprised that she seemed to prefer me. I had never met anyone so glamorous all the time and beautiful – she was like the Barbie doll I never got.

And usually she was always talkative, but not when it came to Jacob, obviously.

I changed the subject, while I absently read through my notes.

"So, do you have any plans this weekend?"

"Of course." Alice grinned and sent another text, before she looked up. "The question is how many things I will have time for."

Alice was always up to something. Whether it was shopping, hanging out with friends or going out. If she had something planned this weekend had been a rhetorical question.

"Oh?" I mumbled and frowned when I realized that I'd spelled ghost without an h.

"Yep." Alice sat up straighter, her eyes full of excitement. "There are two parties tonight, one tomorrow night and then I've planned dinner with my parents on Sunday." Then she frowned, pondering something. "I would also love to go shopping again this weekend… I'll probably just squeeze it in somewhere."

I looked at her.

"Parties?"

"Yes, of course. What do you think Boarding school kids do on weekends?" She rolled her eyes with a smile. "I can't really decide what party we should go to today, though…" she added, thoughtfully.

"Wait, we?" I interrupted, my eyes going wide.

"You and I."

"I'm not planning to go out this weekend." I clarified. Alice raised her eyebrows. "I just want to hang out in our dorm, read a book, watch a movie and maybe order in."

Alice stared at me like I just proposed to her.

"What are you talking about, Bella? Of course we're going out. Duh." She shook her head and picked up her phone when it chirped, mumbling something about staying in, is she crazy.

"Alice, please, it's my first weekend here. I just want to take it easy." I begged.

"I know, Bella." she sighed. "But we need to get your social life going. You need to meet people."

"I meet people." I argued.

When Alice and Jacob weren't around I had been forced to ask other students about the way or sit next to them in class. A few of them had been really friendly and now knew me by my first name and waved whenever I walked by, but a few others didn't seem to like me at all. Among them Lauren, the girl Jacob had talked to me about earlier, the one that apparently was mad at me for "stealing" Edward.

But Alice always cheered me up when someone showed signs to disapprove of me and I could usually shrug it off.

I had made friends and I was meeting people all the time.

"Yes." Alice agreed, rolling her eyes. "But people aren't completely themselves in class. You would be surprised."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, that if you want to make real friends and get to know them, you have to meet them outside of school." Alice winked and started to type another text.

"Hm." I sighed. It was best to leave the conversation for now. I was sure Alice would bring it up again. "Who are you texting, anyway?"

I had meant it as a casual question and was reading through my textbook, but in the corner of my eye Alice made a weird movement. I looked up, frowning.

"What's wrong?"

Alice looked at me nervously, swallowed and then smiled, shrugging.

"Sorry. Nothing."

She obviously didn't want to answer my question, but she had alerted my curiosity.

"But who are you texting?"

"Um… A friend." Alice replied absently, still typing.

"Who?" I pressed, smiling when I saw that her ears were becoming red. Alice almost never got embarrassed, only when she spoke of… "Is it Jasper?"

Alice looked at me, thinking hard. It felt like she was deciding something. Then she sighed and slowly nodded.

"Yeah."

"Hmmm…" I nodded and smiled at her. Then I decided that I'd let her sweat long enough and went back to my work.

However, ten text messages later, I couldn't help but sigh:

"Jasper really seems to like texting."

"It's not Jasper anymore." Alice said. Then she added, sighing: "It's Edward."

To my big embarrassment, when Alice mentioned her brother's name, my pen flew away. It landed one feet away on the floor.

Alice looked at me, surprised. I blushed.

My reaction to Edward's name or his presence hadn't changed at all.

After the Jacob scene in our dorm he hadn't spoken another word to me, only sent me frustrated glares once in a while. He was apparently not happy that his sister's roommate was friends with his enemy.

Alice had told me not to worry about it and that he was not mad at me, but I couldn't help but feel ashamed and guilty by some reason.

"What's wrong?" Alice asked me and looked at my pen on the floor and then at me.

"Nothing." I mumbled, ashamed that I couldn't control my teenage hormones even around his sister and smiled reassuringly. "I'm fine."

"Okay." she said and smiled a knowing smile that I had no idea what it meant. I looked away.

"You know-"Alice began.

"Hey, Bella!" A familiar voice called and interrupted whatever Alice had planned to say. She frowned when she saw who it was.

"Hi, Jake." I smiled when he walked up to us. He shot an irritated glance at Alice, but then turned to me, grinning. Of the three of The Cullens Jacob seemed to mind Alice the least.

"How's it going? I haven't seen you since dinner last night." he said and touched my shoulder in a friendly manner. It made Alice's eyes narrow.

"I know. I slept in today and was barely in time for my first class."

Jacob laughed.

"Of course. Hey, listen, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out after school. Embry just cancelled on me." He rolled his eyes. "Apparently he managed to get a date."

I giggled.

"Imagine that!" I joked. "Gee, thanks for using me as a second choice, dude."

"Third actually-"Jacob said playfully. "Jared was busy, too."

I threw my head back and laughed.

"Um, Bella." Alice interrupted our conversation, her eyes sharp on my face. I looked at her. "Didn't you promise to do something with me tonight?"

"We were talking." Jacob said coolly. I sent him a glare, silently telling him to knock it off. He shrugged.

"She's right. Sorry, Jake." I said apologetically.

"But after school? Before tonight." he pressed. Alice snorted.

"I have detention." I admitted, looking down.

"Oh, right." Jacob frowned. "Well, what about tomorrow?"

"Okay." I nodded, smiling.

"Alright. See you." He grinned at me, sent a last mad glance at Alice and disappeared.

I went back to my work for a minute, Alice continued to send text-messages and I wondered if she was still talking to Edward.

Then she muttered:

"He seems…um, desperate to be with you."

"Huh?" I said, surprised, and looked up at her. "What are you talking about?"

Alice smiled and shrugged, nodding towards the direction Jacob came from.

"You're with him quite a lot." she pointed out.

"I'm with you a lot, too. We're friends."

"Whenever I'm not with you, he is."

"Well, whenever I'm not with him, I'm with you." I said and raised my eyebrows. "I don't think I get your point."

She sighed and shook her head.

"I'm sorry. Nothing."

The school bell rang right then and we hurried to gather our things and get to class.

When school ended that day and the other students hurried out of their classrooms to start the weekend, I stayed and had detention.

The teacher held me there an hour and then told me to go and have a nice weekend.

Relieved, I hurried out of the classroom and started to head back towards the dorm.

On the way there, however, on the fifth floor, I heard raised voices and couldn't help but overhear.

Especially because one of the voices were so amazingly familiar.

"…you knew we were just having fun, Lauren." Edward just said, his voice impatient.

"I thought we had more than that." A female replied. Lauren, I thought. It sounded like she was crying.

"Yeah, right." Edward snorted.

I couldn't see where the two voices came from, but they were somewhere close by.

No other students were around and I guessed everyone was getting ready for their weekend activities.

I swallowed and wished that I could make myself continue upstairs, but my legs wouldn't move.

"You are a dick, you know that?" Lauren just shrieked. I heard a slap and gasped quietly. "You, Edward Cullen, are a dick!"

Edward mumbled something in reply, but I couldn't make out what it was.

High heels clicked against the floor and I had to throw myself against a wall to not be squashed by Lauren when she stormed by. Her eyes were swollen and red and when she saw me they narrowed. She ran down the stairs.

I stared after her, stunned and confused.

Then I quickly climbed the next staircase, afraid that Edward might see me and realize that I was listening to his private conversation.

When I returned to the dorm five minutes later my thoughts were still on Edward and Lauren. I tried to force myself to think of something else and stop being such a typical girl, but wasn't having any success so far.

Alice was in the living room, painting her toenails red and watching TV. She looked up when I came in, smiling.

"Hey. How was detention?"

I told her a little about it and then we chatted for a few minutes. After a while she stretched and put the nail polish on the living room table.

"You look a little weird. Is everything okay?" she said and raised her eyebrows at me, concerned.

I nodded.

"Yeah, thanks. Just…" My voice faded away. Then I took a deep breath and quickly asked: "Is Edward dating Lauren?"

Alice frowned and slowly shook her head.

"No. But…" She interrupted herself."Why?" she asked carefully.

"Just… um…. I heard them argue and I assumed…" I said, looking down on my hands.

"They have sex." Alice told me and blew on her new-painted nails. I choked.

"What?"

"Sex. They have sex."

"Oh." I blushed.

"But, I mean, it's not official between them or something. He has a lot of… female, um, friends." Alice said, smiling grimly and shrugging.

I could hear that she didn't approve of her brother's ways, but didn't practically mind either. I, the other hand, felt sick at the thought of it.

Alice didn't seem to notice, though. She continued to say something about Edward, but I interrupted.

"Hey, I have to go and… do something…" I mumbled and started towards my room.

"Hey, you never gave me an answer about the party!" Alice called after me, but my door was already closed behind me.

* * *

It was pitch black outside when I left my room again.

Alice was nowhere in sight and I assumed she was in her room getting ready to go out. I sighed and went to the kitchen to have a sandwich.

But when I entered the room Alice was sitting at the table, having a sandwich of her own. She looked up and smiled when she saw me. She was wearing sweats and a black t-shirt and uggs.

I stared, and then said jokingly:

"It's a pajamas party?"

Alice giggled and shook her head.

"I decided to stay here with you. We can watch a movie or something. I even stopped by the store to pick up popcorn and soda."

"When did you do that?" I asked.

"When you were pouting in your room." Alice said, raising her eyebrows, her eyes teasing. I looked away.

"You don't have to do this, Alice. I can take care of myself." I said and walked over to the fridge and assembled things for my sandwich.

"I know that, Bella. I want to stay." Alice said.

I turned to look at her and saw that her expression was honest and as cheerful as ever. I smiled.

"Thanks."

"Sure. Now, I checked the TV guide and guess what… Titanic is on!" Alice squealed.

I giggled.

"Great."

We popped popcorn, grabbed the soda and ran to the living room. The sandwiches were since long forgotten.

While the night went on I felt more and more happy that Alice had decided stay with me. Even though she made me do a manicure, I had fun.

When Titanic was over, Alice and I were drying our tears and sobbing about how Jack should've shared that floating thing with Rose in the water, we decided to order pizza.

It was already 11 and we hadn't had dinner yet. I was starving.

Alice grabbed the phone and left to the kitchen to make our orders. I stayed on the couch, lazily watching commercials.

Then someone knocked on the door. I looked up, staring at the door as if it would suddenly jump aside and reveal who it was.

"Bella, will you get that?" Alice shouted from the kitchen.

"Sure." I said and stood and walked towards the door, yawning.

I threw it open.

"Hey, Bella."

"Oh, um, hi, Emmett."

He grinned at me and walked by to step inside. I closed the door behind him.

"How's it going?" Emmett asked me when we started towards the living room. "I haven't seen you much."

"I'm fine, thanks." I said and looked up at him. "You?"

"You know, the usual." he winked.

"That bad?" Alice asked when she exited the kitchen, phone in hand.

Emmett chuckled.

Just like his brother, I hadn't seen Emmett much ever since the Jacob thing. He always grinned or said hi when we met, but he hadn't been to our dorm much.

Alice and I were thinking the same thing apparently, because she said:

"I thought you didn't come here anymore. Don't stop now, please, it's doing us so much good."

I laughed, but Emmett just shrugged.

"I've been busy." he simply said. Alice snorted, but didn't comment. "Why are you girls in here, anyway?" Emmett said. He turned towards me. "I thought you would be partying all weekend."

I felt myself blush, but Alice rescued me and said:

"I wanted to take it easy tonight. Bella decided to stay with me. We watched Titanic."

Emmett imitated Alice when she saw the movie the first time and looked like a huge baby in a body-builder body. I giggled.

"What are you doing here?" Alice asked and sat down on the couch. I joined her.

"I left Tanya's party early. I have basketball practice tomorrow. But hey, you guys have popcorn…"

He stayed for about an hour, watching television with us and eating our popcorn. However, when our pizza arrived Alice told him to leave.

He unwillingly left our dorm and I looked at her questioningly.

"Why couldn't he stay?"

Alice rolled her eyes and took one slice of her margarita.

"He loves pizza."

I laughed.

We ate hungrily in silence. Sometimes we exchanged words like mm or this is so good.

"That was amazing." I said when I finished. Alice was done soon after and patted her small stomach.

"Yeah." she agreed, smiling.

Suddenly someone knocked on the door again. Alice groaned and went for it, muttering something about Emmett being back for pizza.

I heard her open the door and then her sigh of relief.

"Thank god. I thought it was Emmett. What's up?" she said to whoever it was. A mumbling voice replied and Alice said: "Sure." The door closed again and I heard steps coming against the living room.

Curiously I looked up to see if Alice had any company. She did.

"Hello, Bella."

It was Edward.

**Next chapter is pretty much done already, so leave a review and I might post it today or first thing tomorrow! **

**Tell me what you think about this chapter, please! Did you like it? No? Why/why not? **

**Thanks so much for reading. I hope you all had a great christmas and new year. **

**xx Tillie**


	6. Chapter 6

**HATE ME. STAB ME. KILL ME. I'M SORRY!**

**I know I promised an update soon and I didn't update soon. Sorry, sorry, sorry! I do have an excuse though. I did it for you guys... and for me. **

**When I finished the last chapter I felt kind of lost. I didn't like the way the story was heading and I had to think about how I wanted it. I reread the story a couple of times and tried to look at it from your POV. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. And then I deleted and deleted and deleted. **

**It took ages to even remember what I wanted this to be about from the beginning and how the characters were feeling and so on... But then Emmett hit me HARD and told me to pull myself together and write SOMETHING! So I did. **

**Here it is. I kind of like it, actually... **

***Shyly* So, if you're still hanging in there... Here's chapter 6, people! I hope you enjoy!**

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

"Hello, Bella."

It was Edward.

He wasn't looking at me, not meeting my gaze, but a small smile tugged on his lips.

My breathing caught in my throat.

I managed to croak: "Hi."

He was wearing a tight, black shirt that hugged his muscles in the most tempting way. Emmett may be bigger, but that didn't mean Edward wasn't muscular.

His hair was even messier than usual, spiking in every direction like Alice's, and the green, piercing eyes were unfocused.

Edward Cullen was pure sex walking and my teenage body reacted to it immediately.

He was also slightly drunk, I guessed.

"He's not staying, Bella." Alice told me, apparently misreading my expression in some way. She glared at Edward and a smirk tugged at her lips. "He apparently needed to ask me something."

"Not here, Ali." Edward muttered and looked in my direction quickly.

"Don't call me Ali." Alice rolled her eyes.

He sighed, nodded towards her room and walked out of my sight.

Alice smiled apologetically and mouthed 'I'll be right back'. Then she disappeared too and I heard her door close with a soft slam.

I looked after them, frowning a little, curiously wondering what Edward wanted to ask her that he couldn't say in my presence.

But I shrugged after a few seconds, it was none of my business, and turned my eyes to the television.

It only took a minute and then they were back. Alice looked a little amused by something and Edward seemed disturbed. They stopped in the doorway to the living room again.

Edward wasn't looking at me, his head seemed to force itself to be turned towards Alice, and his mouth was pressed into a thin line.

"Deal with it." Alice mumbled and shrugged. Edward made a weird movement with his neck, irritated, and shrugged. Then, still without looking at me, he stormed out of the room and slammed the dorm door after him harder than usual.

Alice sighed and looked at me, smiling.

"What was that about?" I asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible. My breathing was slowly going back to normal.

She plopped down on the couch next to me again and sighed, shrugging.

"Honestly, I'm not sure what his problem is. But…" she trailed off, shaking her head. "He's a guy, I guess. I'm not supposed to completely get him, right?"

I nodded, smiled and patted her arm. She was right. Boys would always remain a mystery.

"You're right. I don't get him either." I admitted quietly.

Alice looked at me, frowning in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean…" I sighed, regretting that I brought it up. "Like this whole Jacob thing… I don't understand why he would be mad at me for being with Jacob, I just…" I groaned in frustration.

Then I realized that I had just said this to Alice, his sister. I quickly added:

"Not that it matters to me or anything, just curious, you know…" I mumbled the last part.

Alice was watching me, a deep frown on her pretty face. It disturbed me that she had that look and I felt bad.

"Sorry." I muttered.

Something seemed to strike Alice and when realization dawned in her eyes she gasped and brought a hand to her mouth.

"No. No, Bella. No." she said and her eyes were wide.

I panicked.

"What?"

"Did you…? No… Or did you, Bella…?" Alice said, all the time watching me with amazement and…horror.

"Did I what?" I asked anxiously.

Alice shook her head and continued to look at me, thinking hard.

"There something you should know about my brother, Bella…" she started after a few seconds, watching me seriously. I frowned. "I know that I already told you he has a lot of female friends, but I don't know if you heard me."

"Alice, what-"

"Don't go there, Bella, trust me. I don't want you to get hurt." Alice was so serious that I didn't know if I should laugh or cry.

I stared at her.

"Um, okay." I said.

"Look-"she sighed and smiled softly, taking a deep breath. "Edward is my brother and I love him. He's a good guy, really. But…" Alice hesitated. "Yeah, I'm sure you understand how he is. He uses girls, plays with them like toys and when he gets bored with them he looks for another."

I swallowed. "Why are you telling me this?" I whispered, already half knowing the answer.

Alice bit her lip, watching me carefully. Then she smiled and shrugged.

"Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just being silly." She shook her head and then giggled. "I am, aren't I? Sorry!"

I pretended to laugh in amusement, too, and lied:

"You are."

We continued to giggle together until we both forgot what we were laughing about.

"Sorry." Alice apologized again. Then she rolled her eyes. "I guess I'm just used to everyone crushing on Edward. But I should've known you were different."

She changed the subject then and truly seemed to believe that she had been far off. I sighed in relief.

"No Jacob today?" Alice asked hopefully the next morning in the living room. She was already dressed and dolled up and was watching TV.

I glared at her because of her tone, but shook my head.

"Nope. He's sick. He called earlier." I sighed and plopped down next to her.

This morning when I met Alice in the kitchen she hadn't mentioned anything about Edward or the conversation we had yesterday. I had been nervous that the crack of dawn would make her see the truth, but it didn't seem like it.

Alice was still unaware of what I felt towards her brother. Whatever that was…

"Well, that's too bad." Alice said, not sounding the least sorry. She smiled brightly at me. "But look at it from the bright side; now you can do something fun today! Something that doesn't include Ja-"

"Alice." I interrupted and nodded towards her vibrating black berry. "Your phone."

"Oh." she said and looked down on it, frowning.

I couldn't see who it was calling but it made her sigh.

Alice picked it up and pressed the phone to her ear.

"What?"

One of her brothers, I realized at her tone, and my stomach tickled. I listened to Alice's side of the conversation.

"Uh-huh. Okay. Well, I don't know. Perhaps. Why? You've never cared about that before. I don't know, I just told you! Why do you even care? Fine. Yeah. Bye."

She hung up with another sigh and looked at me with a sad smile.

"Emmett?" I asked, one side of me hoping that it wasn't and one side hoping that it was.

"Edward." Alice corrected and rolled her eyes. I swallowed. "Boy, is that guy odd. He wanted to know if we were going to the party tonight."

"And?" I asked, frowning. "What's so odd about that?"

"Bella." Alice laughed and shook her head. "Why would he care? He's never asked before. I wonder…" Then she interrupted herself and looked at me strangely.

"What?" I blushed and looked down on my hands.

"Nothing. Sorry." she said in a weird voice and shook her head, like she was trying to get rid of an irritating fly. "Anyway, since I thought you would be hanging with Jacob today I kind of made other plans with Rose and a few other friends…" Alice looked guilty and smiled apologetically. "But if you wanna come…?"

"No." I said quickly. Alice raised her eyebrows at me in confusion. "I mean, of course I would like to, but…" Truthfully, I was afraid that Lauren or some of her friends might be there and that girl made me want to gag. But she was Alice's friend and I couldn't say that. "I just have so much homework to catch up with." I lied.

"Sure." Alice said, but I saw that she didn't believe me. "Well, okay. Rose should be here any second.

A knock on the door confirmed her words.

"That must be Rosalie." I smirked. Alice giggled.

Then she patted my leg. "See you later, kay?" She rose to her feet. "And do me a favor, don't sit around here all day and do nothing."

"But I have homework." I lied again, but Alice just shook her head and smiled.

A harder, irritated knock went through the dorm and she shouted:

"I'm coming!"

Alice winked at me and disappeared to open the door. I sighed and listened to the door open and then Rosalie's attractive voice saying something irritated to Alice.

They chatted for a bit. Then keys rustled and…

"Bye, Bella!"

At lunch I decided to go out to eat. My entire morning had been spent doing nothing, watching TV and reading, so now I wanted to get out of the dorm.

Truthfully, and I didn't even really want to admit this to myself, I was hoping to see Edward.

But there was no sight of him around the school and when I reached the first floor I realized that he was probably still at practice. Whatever practice that was, because I didn't know… Football? Soccer? Basketball?

With a sigh I went towards the cafeteria, but outside the ladies bathrooms a firm hand suddenly took a hold of me.

I yelped in shock and automatically tried to get away from whoever tried to pull me backwards. I was unsuccessful and, with no one around to see it, I was pulled backwards into the ladies bathroom.

"What the-"I swore and turned around, breathlessly, when the hands let go of me.

It was Lauren. And a few of her friends, I thought. Two other girls.

They looked down on me with narrowed eyes, towering over me thanks to their high heels.

"Hello, Bella." Lauren sneered.

"What are you guys doing?" I said, breathing hard, and licked my lips nervously.

Lauren and her friends were facing me with their backs towards the door, guarding it. I was trapped.

"We just wanted to chat for a bit." One of Lauren's friends, a blond girl, said in high-pitched voice that sounded so comical I almost smiled.

"Yes." Lauren agreed and smiled too sweet. "We just realized that we haven't formally introduced ourselves to the new student and that made us feel so bad."

"I'm Jessica." The blond girl said in the same light voice. She didn't offer a hand but smiled dangerously.

"I'm Lizzie." Lauren's other friend muttered. I looked at her and was surprised to find that she didn't look anything like Lauren or Jessica. She had dark, brown hair that reached her shoulders and no makeup at all. It also didn't look like she wanted to be here at all.

"And I'm Lauren." Lauren said lastly and eyed me, eyes narrowing again.

"Um…" I stared at them, knowing this was not what they really wanted.

"I trust you're feeling at home here by now, Bella." Lauren continued, hissing. "Because I'm quite certain that you do, don't you?"

"What are you talking-"I started in confusion. Jessica snorted.

"Don't act so innocent, you little thief." she said, spitting out the last word with rage.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I said, honestly. These girls were crazy… I had never stolen anything! My dad was a police for Christ's sake!

"Sure, of course not, Bella." Lauren said sweetly, her eyes cold. "But let me make this clear…" She leaned forward to whisper. "If you ever as much as talk to my boyfriend again, I will personally make life a living hell for you."

I gasped and looked at her in horror. Jessica giggled at my expression.

"I-I… I… "I stammered.

"Edward doesn't want you, okay!?" Lauren shrieked suddenly, out of control. "He wants me, got it? And you will not take him away from me! Do you hear me!?"

"He's not your boyfriend." I muttered, wondering where my courage came from. I looked down on my feet, blossoming red.

"What?" Jessica hissed, pretending to not hear me.

"Nothing." I said and looked up, making myself stare straight into her eyes.

"Good." Lauren snorted and looked at me in disgust. Then she added: "Stay away from him if you know what's good for you."

Lauren and Jessica stormed out of the room, throwing furious glares at me over their shoulders, and Lizzie followed after a second. But before she left I saw the ashamed look on her face.

I didn't leave the bathroom for a while, even when I was done crying. Don't ask why I cried and wept tears because of someone like Lauren, but I did and my eyes were wet and red.

But then I started thinking, leaning against one of the sinks, still sniffing from my crying.

Why did Lauren tell me to stay away from Edward? How could she possibly feel threatened by someone like me?

Sure, I had talked to him and he was my roommate's brother. But what was the big deal?

Edward had basically ignored me the past days until last night and that should make Lauren thrilled and not angry and jealous. Not to mention, before that he didn't seem the least interested by me.

I shook my head and decided to not waste any more time to think about it. I was being silly.

Lauren was obviously insecure and ridiculous.

For lunch I ate a salad and a bagel, ignoring the stares from my classmates. They probably wondered why my eyes were all puffy and red.

Because of the risk at seeing Lauren or one of her pals again, I hurried back to the dorm after lunch and wanted to stay there for the rest of the evening.

But Alice apparently had other plans.

When she came back from her shopping trip with Rosalie and she was unpacking all her new clothes in the living room to show me, she carefully said that there was a party tonight.

"I know, Alice. You said so yesterday." I nodded carefully and looked at the top she held up and smiled in approval. My roommate's sense of style could, as usual, not be denied.

"Yeah…" Alice said slowly, biting her lip. "But I really want you to go, too." she added, making a grimace at my expected protests.

"No, Alice, please." I groaned. "I thought I made myself clear yesterday… and I really want to stay in tonight, too, please."

She sighed and stood, starting to return all the clothes to the bags again.

"I know, Bella. I'm sorry to nag. I just…" Alice shrugged, an angel smile spreading over her face. I had to smile back. "We would have so much fun, I promise! I could help you get ready, we could go down there together and meet all our friends, and we'll dance and sing karaoke…"

"I'm sorry… sing?" I interrupted, my eyes widening.

"Bella, please." Alice sighed. "I don't really get your problem."

That set me off.

"My problem is that I hate parties, Alice. I hate dancing, drinking, a lot of people, singing and loud music. And besides, it's my first weekend here – we have a lot of opportunities to go out later!" I rambled and gesticulated wildly during my speech.

"Jesus." Alice muttered under her breath and smiled amusedly at me. She rose to her feet and assembled all her bags and made a movement to leave the room. But she stopped mid-stepped and turned to look at me seriously: "Would you be mad if I went?"

"No, of course not." I said truthfully. "Alice, you're being too nice to me. I can take care of myself more than well."

"I know. I just feel like I'm a bad friend for leaving you all alone-"

"No." I said, smiling and walked over to her, putting my hands on her shoulders. "You will go and I will stay here, okay? It's fine, really. Have fun."

I left the room before she could say anything else and sighed internally in relief.

Alice was getting ready when I left my room one hour later and I peeked into her room, watched her apply makeup for a minute before I made my present known:

"Hey."

She jumped, obviously not having any idea that I was standing there, and met my eyes in the mirror.

"Hi. What's up?"

"Nothing…" I smiled. "You look great." I added. And she did. Like a beautiful pixie.

"Thanks, I try." Alice winked at me and I laughed.

I stood there watching her for a while, considering if I should call Charlie and tell him how things were going here, when Alice's phone went off on her bed. People called her so often that I wondered if she was president in some club somewhere, or maybe several.

"Hello?" Alice answered, without looking who it was. "Oh, hey, Jazz." She blushed and turned away from me, but I had already seen it and I grinned. "Yeah, I am. Do you mind telling Edward?" A thrill went through me when she said his name. "He's been bugging me about it. Okay, thanks… You're going, right? Oh. Why not? Tomorrow, on a Sunday? Wow." Alice looked disappointed at something. "Well, good luck, then….Yeah, I will." She rolled her eyes. "Okay. Sure. Bye." She hung up, sighing.

"Jasper?" I said, only to tease her with the name.

"Yes. He says hi." Alice said quietly and went back to her bathroom, starting to apply makeup again – her hands were a little unsteady.

"Well, what did he want?"

"He wanted to know if I was going to the party." she sighed in reply. "Then when I asked if he was going he said that he wasn't. They have a game tomorrow."

I frowned.

"So, why did he ask if you were going?"

"I don't know. But he did tell me to be careful, so I guess maybe that's why."

"Naw, that's so cute." I sang and giggled. Alice threw me a dark look, but didn't reply. I wondered how long she had been in love with Jasper Hale. "So, what do they all play anyway?"

"Baseball." Alice replied, seeming relieved that I changed the subject. "Emmett, Edward and Jasper are three of the best players on the boy's team. Mom and dad taught us since we were little. Our family and the Hale's used to play games against each other before."

"So you play, too?" I asked, surprised at this. I never would've guessed that Alice was a baseball player, but then again, there were probably million things I didn't know about her yet.

"Yeah." Alice smiled. "I haven't played in a while, but-"

"Are you serious!?" I groaned loudly. Alice black berry had gone off again.

"Sorry." she grimaced and hurried to get it. "Hello?"

This time I didn't feel tempted to listen to her conversation and smiled at her before I exited the room, heading towards the kitchen.

I got myself a bottle of water and silently went through the movies that were on tonight in my head, deciding which ones I wanted to see.

"Um, Bella?" Alice said and peeked into the room, her expression twisted and with her phone still in hand.

"Yeah?" I said and opened the fridge to return the bottle.

"Don't hit me, okay?" she said nervously. Before I could joke about that I only picked on people my own size, she blurted out: "Emmett and Edward wants to come over."

As usual, my body reacted to his name, but I managed to control it so that Alice wouldn't notice.

"Sure. When? Tomorrow?" I said and made a mental note to leave the dorm whenever they were planning to show. I wanted to avoid another meeting with Edward as yesterday where he wouldn't even look at me.

"Um, no." Alice scratched her head. "Like, now. Tonight."

I frowned in confusion.

"But you're going out tonight, right? Are you staying in anyway?" It felt like she was telling me something very obvious, but my head refused to understand it.

"No." she shook her head slowly. Then she explained: "They just want to borrow our television. They won't bother you or anything."

I choked.

"What!? Are they coming here when you're gone?"

"Yes." Alice nodded, grimacing. "I'm sorry. But their television is broken and they wanted to watch a movie tonight. Is it okay?"

"Um, I…" I took a deep breath, licking my lips. Edward. Here. With. Me. The fact that Emmett was going to be here too I barely thought about. "Sure, of course, Alice." I managed to say. "They're your brothers. Of course they can come over. It's no problem."

"Thank you, Bella! I would have them all over my otherwise!" Alice smiled and ran over to hug me, all signs of anxiety gone. Then she dialed a number on her phone and called Emmett and Edward to tell them.

There were huge, annoying butterflies in my stomach. I certainly hoped that Edward wouldn't give me any death glares or at least not completely ignore me. Perhaps I could just stay in my room, wait for them to leave…

"They'll come over in, like, an hour." Alice told me when she shut her phone. "They were having dinner first."

This would be interesting.

**Yes, this WILL be interesting. Very. I'm kind of nervous to write the next chapter, but Emmett will be there and he's always easy to write. Gotta love him. **

**Anyway, if you have any suggestions about the story or what you want to happen next - let me know! I'm open for ideas. I do have my own things planned, but I need a few more fun stuff.**

**I'm SO sorry again about the extremly long wait and THANK YOU SO MUCH for still hanging in there! I love you all so much, even though I don't deserve either one of your sweet reviews! **

**Speaking of reviews... leave me one and tell me what you think! Without reviews I won't be able to write, truthfully... Thank you!!!**

**xx, Tillie **


	7. Chapter 7

**No one is more surprised than me that I updated quickly this time... I loooooved writing this chapter! Probably one of my favorites so far, so expect a lot of things like it from now on... I hope you enjoy!**

**ps. Thanks for you reviews and suggestions on the last chapter! It really helped! And I probably will use one of the suggestions that one of you came up with later...**

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

I pulled the brush through my hair one more time and gulped at my mirror image. I was embarrassed to admit that I was more excited to see Edward than nervous and uncomfortable. He was actually going to be here, so close, and he came willingly with the knowledge that Alice wouldn't be here and that I would be. That had to mean that he didn't completely hate me, right?

"Bella!" Alice shouted from somewhere in the dorm. She was listening to _Single Ladies_ with Beyonce and had to shout over the music. I sighed and returned my brush to its place.

"Yeah!?" I screamed.

"Can you come here for a sec?"

"Mmm…" I mumbled, more to myself, and took a last glance at myself in the mirror. I couldn't do better than that.

I walked out of my room and followed the beat of the music to her room.

"Hey." Alice said when I peeked around the corner and she turned down the music some.

She was dressed and seeming ready to go.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"I was just about to ask you." she grinned. Then the humor vanished and she added seriously: "Are you sure you're okay about this?"

"Alice, they should be here any second. It's a little too late now even if I weren't okay with it." I pointed out.

"I can still call…"

"Alice." I frowned. "What's up? What are you so worried about?"

She sighed and smiled apologetically, pulling a strand of black hair from her pretty face. She walked over to her stereo and turned off the music completely.

"Sorry. I just got the impression…" Alice stopped mid-sentenced and looked at me, considering something. Then she seemed to change her mind and said: "I just know my brothers, that's all." She grinned. "They can be a pain, so…. Just be careful, okay?" I got the feeling that her last words meant something else – Alice looked serious. She was eyeing my new-brushed hair and seemed to think hard.

Then she smiled, seeming completely at ease. Her mood-changes made me confused.

"Try to have fun, too, okay? And don't let them rule, promise?"

"Promise." I smiled. "And you promise to have fun, too."

"Promise." she giggled.

We hugged and she gave me one last glance before she left, not bothering to lock the door behind her. I sighed and stared at the door, fought down the butterflies that threatened to take over.

Truthfully, I wasn't much of a drinker – Angela and Jessica used to make me have a drink once in a while in my last school, but I never did it willingly. Now I had to have one.

I looked, panicky, for a bottle of any sort of liquor in the house, convinced that Alice must at least have something.

And I was right.

"Thank god." I sighed when I found the vodka bottle under the couch in the living room. Immediately I took a huge sip, almost choked, and then swallowed with a grimace. Then I took another.

A few sips later and my panic was slowly starting to disappear. I doubted that I was drunk, but not sober either.

_Knock, knock, knock. _

I yelped and jumped three feet in the air, still holding the vodka bottle.

They were here.

"Stop it, Bella…" I lessoned myself when I hid the bottle under the couch again and started towards the door. "Just open the door… open the door, and then you can hide in your room… Open the door, smile and seem at ease."

I took a huge breath, preparing myself, and plastered a fake smile on my face. The liquor seemed to help a little. I threw the door open.

"Yo!" Emmett grinned and wasted no time. He walked by me towards the living room, like this was something we usually did. "Do you have anything to eat, Bella?" he shouted over his shoulder.

I couldn't reply, I couldn't find my voice.

"Hey." Edward said and looked down on his feet awkwardly. I felt my face redden, like it usually did in his presence, and my heartbeat picked up.

The scent of him filled my nose and my entire brain and I inhaled quietly. His bronze-hair was wet from a shower and his tanned skin looked so warm and soft.

"Hi." I mumbled.

"C'mon, you guys! The movie starts in five minutes and we need something to eat!" Emmett shouted from the kitchen.

Edward was still not looking at me when he passed me to get inside and, I didn't know if it was the liquor, but it made me angry. Why couldn't he even give me the respect to look at me?

I didn't say anything, though, and closed the door and followed him to the kitchen. My body seemed to have decided a long time ago, without my consent, that I was not spending the night in my room.

Emmett was inside our fridge when we entered the room.

"We don't have that much, Emmett." I said.

He peeked over his shoulder at us and looked pouty.

"Not even something for a sandwich?"

I couldn't help but laugh and heard a chuckle slip through Edward's lips, too. It warmed my chest and I wanted to smile at him, but I quickly snapped out of it and walked over to Emmett.

"I don't know…" I started to look through the fridge myself. "I thought you guys ate before you came."

"We did." Emmett nodded, sounding confused. "So what?"

"Emmett can always eat something." Edward murmured. His velvet voice made me shiver, but only Emmett seemed noticed. He looked at me strangely. I shrugged at him and smiled, playing it off.

"Well, I think we have popcorn." I said before Emmett could comment on it. His face broke into a huge grin.

"Why didn't you say so in the first place!?"

I giggled.

Emmett was an expert to make popcorn, he claimed, and told us to get out of the kitchen and change channels on the television to the movie they wanted to see.

Edward and I awkwardly sat down next to each other in the living room and I picked up the remote. I was painfully aware of how close he was and how easy it would be to touch him…

But then again, he wouldn't even look at me so my touch would probably disgust him.

However, I couldn't help but get the impression that Edward was having similar problems. I blamed the vodka, but was I only imaging the way his hand seemed to inch closer and then be pulled back?

He seemed to fight with himself. His breathing was almost harder than mine and it made my heart beat even harder and almost painfully faster.

It took a while before I realized that I hadn't even touched the buttons on the remote and I quickly changed channels, blushing. Edward chuckled quietly.

The sound made me look up into his eyes and I gasped when I saw that he was actually staring back, straight into my eyes – straight into my soul.

Neither of us seemed to be able to break away. He was finally looking at me and his gaze seemed to pierce through me like lighting; my stomach tickled.

"Bella, do you have any salt?" Emmett's voice disturbed our moment and we both jumped, crashing down to reality. In the corner of my eye I saw Edward shake his head and move away from me a little bit. It made my inside ache that he didn't even want to be near me and I let go off a huge breath I didn't even realize I was holding.

"Yeah. Check the cabinet over the sink." I called back to Emmett.

I tried to breathe evenly in and out and pushed away from Edward as far as possible on the little couch. My eyes were plastered on the screen, but my mind was running through a million of questions about what just happened.

Edward shifted uncomfortably and sighed at my side and I almost wanted to demand what his problem was. First, he ignored me and didn't even look at me for days without an explainable reason. Then, a few seconds ago, he was acting like he couldn't even keep his breathing level with me and looked into my eyes with so much feeling. Now, out of nowhere, he was back to being almost annoyed with me and didn't even want to sit near me in the couch.

But I didn't have the courage to say a word. Not even the vodka could change that.

"Okay, my dearest friends, here we go." Emmett cheerfully said when he entered the room with his bowl with popcorn. They smelled wonderful and I smiled. He noticed and grinned. "Told you I was good at it. Now, make some room for me, you knuckleheads…"

I was both annoyed and grateful when he pressed down between me and Edward and stole the remote from my hand. He turned up the sound and placed the bowl with popcorn in his lap, sighing contently.

Did I imagine the sigh Edward suppressed? But it was most likely a sigh of relief that Emmett was between us…

Out of nowhere, tears filled my eyes and threatened to spill over. I panicked and looked away so that they couldn't see, but the movement only alerted them.

"Are you okay, Bella?" Emmett asked, turning to look at me. The opening credits of the movie was starting and a sad, depressing tune was playing.

"I'm fine." I mumbled, not trusting my voice enough to say anything louder.

Edward was looking at me now, too, and it was probably in my head, but he looked concerned.

"Are you sure?" he asked and I felt his gaze on my cheek, for I was still turned away to hide my tears.

"Yeah…I just…" I stood and searched my head for an excuse. "I just remembered that I don't like this movie… ugh." I pretended to shiver. "I'm just going to read a book or something… um, you guys enjoy."

I almost ran from the room as if my life dependent on it, still covering my face from their view, and hurried to my room. The tears were running openly down my face now.

Before I closed my door I heard Emmett say:

"But she didn't even know what movie we were watching."

I slammed the door shut and immediately broke down.

* * *

What felt like hours later I finally calmed down enough to think rationally. I wanted to kick myself for being so silly. What was wrong with me?

The tears were still running down my face, but my quiet sobs had stopped. Had I actually let myself believe, for even a second, that Edward Cullen was interested in me? The silliest, craziest and most unbelievable thing to ever even consider!

I couldn't be mad at Edward. It wasn't his fault that I had, against my will, started to hope something so silly.

But even if I weren't mad at him for that, I couldn't help but be annoyed for the mixed signals he was giving me. He was most likely just playing and I kept falling for it, but it still wasn't right… I understood better now what Alice had meant when she warned me about him before.

I sighed and stood up from my bed and dried my tears. In front of the bathroom mirror I groaned at my red, puffy eyes and thought bitterly that the last two days I'd cried two times – both times it had been because of something with Edward.

He was definitely complicating my life.

A knock on my door echoed through the silence in the room and I froze, not breathing. Then I panicked a little and looked at myself again in the mirror. None of them could see me this way!

"Who is it?" I called, already half-knowing, and tried to sound normal.

"Um, it's Edward." His attractive voice could not be mistaken. I gasped quietly and my eyes widened.

"What do you want, Edward?" I said and walked closer to the door to make sure it was locked.

"I just…" He hesitated. I heard his intake of breath. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. Are you alright?" Why did he have to sound so genuinely concerned? It made my heart sing and I mentally lectured myself to stop falling for it, stop reacting to him. I knew that I could also ask the sun to stop rising and I would have just about the same luck.

"I'm fine." My voice sounded thick and I wondered if he could hear it.

"Do you want something?" he asked. "From the kitchen, I mean?" I almost giggled when I realized how many different ways his first sentence could be taken, but controlled myself and reminded myself to be careful and not encourage him.

"No, thanks." I replied.

"Are you sure? Alice said you didn't have any dinner before she left." Edward said and it sounded like he was pressing his head against my door.

"You called Alice?" I asked, shock clear in my voice.

"Um, yeah." he sounded embarrassed.

I wanted to ask why but didn't bother, he was her brother after all, instead I said:

"I'm good. I don't want anything." That was a lie, of course.

"Really?" Edward asked skeptically. My stomach betrayed me then and I heard him chuckle. I blushed, but thankfully he weren't here to see it. "I'll get you something." he said.

Before I could protest I heard him walk away from my room and towards the kitchen. I also heard him tell Emmett something and heard him reply, but I couldn't make out what they said. I wondered if the movie was still on…

I was embarrassed that Edward was a guest in our dorm and that he had to get me food, but I reminded myself that he was the one to offer and I didn't dwell more on it. Besides, I thought nastily, he was part of the reason I was in here in the first place.

A few minutes later Edward was back outside my door.

"Bella?" he sounded unsure. "You didn't have much to eat, but… I managed to make you two sandwiches… Could you, um, you know, let me in?"

"Leave it outside the door, please." I said. He would not get to see what he did to me.

"Oh, okay. Sure." Why did he sound disappointed? I heard a plate being put down on the floor, but not his steps when he walked away. Edward was still standing there.

I frowned.

"Did you want something else?" I asked.

"No…" He said. Then he sighed and added: "Actually, yeah. I wanted to say something…"

"What was that?" I pressed, only allowing myself to be a little curious, and waited for him to continue. Even if what he said would disappoint or sadden me, only listening to his voice was enough.

"Um… Alice told me before that you've been feeling… bad about my behavior the past days. That you're blaming yourself."

That was certainly not what I expected and I tried to hide my sudden surprise when I said:

"And?"

"And…" Edward paused. "I'm sorry for that. Really."

Edward Cullen was apologizing to me; it was gonna snow… I waited for him to continue, to explain his behavior, but when he didn't I mumbled:

"Okay."

"Okay." he repeated. Then he sighed and said in a low voice: "The movie's really good, you should come…" He walked away then, probably joining Emmett in the living room.

Okay, he and Alice should start a club: "Mood swings and how to confuse everyone around you."

Like on cue, only a few seconds after Edward had left, my phone went off. I knew who it must be, because not many people had my number, and I wondered why she was calling.

"Alice?" I answered, a little distant, my thoughts still on Edward.

"Hey!" Alice said cheerfully. "How's everything going?"

"Good." I lied.

"I don't believe you. Edward called and asked if you had eaten anything before I left. That probably means that you've locked yourself up and he can't ask you." Alice sang.

I groaned. She was good.

"What happened?" she asked, sympathy in her voice now. I heard loud music somewhere in the background and shouting, laughing voices but it seemed quite far away so I guessed that Alice had walked somewhere more private.

"Nothing. I'm just tired." I lied again.

"Bella." Alice sighed. "I thought we were friends."

"We are." I said, surprised that she would think something else.

"No, right now you're acting like a stranger." Alice said seriously. "Friends tell each other everything. Especially friends that live together."

Guilt took over and I felt sick. She was right. What kind of friend was I? Lying, keeping secrets, crushing on her brother…

"I'm sorry." I said truthfully.

"Don't be. Just tell me what's happening. Why are you locked in your room? They didn't do anything, did they?" Suspicion leapt into her tone in the last sentence.

"No!" I hurried to say. Then I remembered what I just promised and sighed: "Kind of. Or well, not really…"

"Bella-"Alice started. "You know you can tell me anything, right? _Anything_." Why did it sound like she knew exactly what I was hiding?

But I couldn't tell her. Not this.

"Can when talk about this when you get back or tomorrow morning?" I said abruptly. "I have to go. Sorry. Have fun. Bye." I hung up before she could get another word out and immediately wanted to punch myself in the face.

* * *

I wanted to stay in my room for the rest of the evening. When I'd gotten my sandwiches from outside the door, I started to read furiously. My book collection slowly started to thin out and it was only two hours later when I didn't have anything to read at all. But I still didn't leave my room.

At least until….

"Bella, the door!" Emmett's voice shouted from the living room. I froze. Oh no. "Hey Bella, someone's at the door!" he shouted again when I didn't reply.

I would have to leave my bomb-shelter.

The boys were still in the living room and the television was on, the sounds from an action movie filling the entire dorm, and I breathed out in relief.

Silently considering how Emmett managed to hear the door over the sounds from the TV, I threw a last glance at myself in the hall mirror when I walked by. Thankfully, my eyes weren't red anymore and I looked quite normal.

Who was visiting at night like this?

I flung the door open, curiously peeking through it. My eyes widened. As if my night hadn't been rough enough…

Lauren.

**Duh-duh-duh-duh. He he. The Witch. Sorry, all Lauren-lovers! But she's the demon in my story...**

**How did you like this chapter? Like I said, I really loved writing it so expect more like this in the future! **

**Leave a review and tell me what you liked about it/didn't like about it! Thanks! **

**Also, if you're confused about something or if you can find any errors - let me know! I'll reply to everyone's questions!**

**Thank you for reading, everyone!**

**xx, Tillie**


	8. Chapter 8

**Pretty quick update, huh? Hehe. I'm getting better at it ;)**

**Enjoy!**

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

"Um, hello." I said awkwardly and swallowed nervously. "What's up?"

Lauren was leaning against the doorframe in a dramatic pose, her eyes narrowed and angled directly on me.

"Where is he?" she hissed.

"Who?" I asked in a high-pitched voice.

"Edward." Lauren raised her eyebrows and smiled a fake smile.

"He's, um…" I stammered.

"I thought I told you stay away from him." Lauren whispered furiously.

"I didn't invite- He came here. With Emmett, I mean. They're watching-"I stammered.

"Get out of the way." she ordered and took one step forward. I didn't move. Her eyes narrowed. "I said; get out of the way!"

But I still didn't move from my place in front of the door. I wouldn't be afraid of her anymore. Not in my own dorm. Not anywhere.

"No." I said simply. She had no right to order me around. I had been silly to listen to her and let her make me feel bad before.

"What did you say?" Lauren hissed, leaning forward. She apparently thought she looked intimidating but I found her ridiculous.

"No." I repeated and met her eyes, daring her to push me out of the way.

We stared each other down for a few seconds; Lauren was breathing hard.

Then she gave up and came in towards my face, whispering:

"Remember what I promised to do if you got close to him again…" She turned on her heel and stomped away down the corridor, heels clicking against the floor.

I sighed, closed the door and leaned my head against it with shut eyes. That girl gave me head ache.

"Are you alright?" A voice asked quietly behind me. I jumped around and blushed deeply and almost painfully when I faced him. Edward looked at me with questioning eyes, confused and worried.

"Um, yes. Thanks." I mumbled and looked away, down on my feet.

"She can be a pain. What did she want, anyway?" he asked and, unconsciously, came closer to talk. I noticed, though, and pressed my back against the door, trying to control my breathing. It was embarrassing how my body reacted whenever he was close. He would have to be blind and deaf to not notice.

"Nothing special." I lied and licked my lips, still not meeting his eyes. Edward stood right in front of me now and I could feel his eyes on me. Wow, what an honor. He was looking at me. But only when I wasn't looking at him apparently…

"Okay." He shrugged, but didn't sound convinced. We were both quiet for a while and I wondered silently what he was doing here with me and why he didn't go back to Emmett.

Suddenly, without any warning, Edward was in my face, his body almost touching mine. My breathing stopped completely and my eyes automatically flickered up to his. They were a darker green than usual.

"You're a terrible liar, you know." he whispered. His warm breath blew in my face and made my head whirl. "I didn't buy it for a second." he continued. I breathed in the scent of his skin – cologne, toothpaste and… Edward. My eyes almost closed. It smelled incredible.

"Oh." was all I managed to gasp. Edward chuckled quietly and brought one hand up to caress my cheek. His touch felt electric and so soft against my skin, I almost moaned.

My hands wanted to grab him and press him against me or get lost in his hair. I wanted to lean in and kiss his face, his lips, his neck… I felt a strong urge to touch his arms and his stomach to see if they were as muscled as they looked.

But before I had time to do any of that – while Edward's hand was still on my cheek and his eyes intensively focused on mine – Emmett interrupted the moment yet again.

"Yo, Ed, where did you go, man? You got to see this! The gorilla is eating the president and-"

"I'm coming!" Edward barked. He looked frustrated by something and sighed quietly. Then his eyes flickered to mine again and his expression softened.

My breathing was still fast and unnaturally loud. I blushed, but Edward only smiled and touched my cheek one last time.

His body pressed to mine momentarily when he moved and I felt his beating heart and hard, defined body against mine. I almost groaned.

Then he was gone. He walked back to the living room and after a few seconds I heard him talk to Emmett. Like nothing had happened. If he kept this up he would give me a heart attack.

* * *

"Bella." A chirper voice sang somewhere over my head. "Bella."

I groaned and shook my head.

"It's time to get up, sleepy." Alice said cheerfully and I felt her soft hand on my arm. She shook me a little. "Up you go!"

"No." I croaked and grimaced when I made the mistake to open my eyes – the lights were turned on. I hid my face in my pillow. "I want to sleep, Alice. Wake me up in an hour." My voice was muffled.

"But I want to talk about last night." she said.

"You'll have to wait." I sighed.

"But I've _been_ waiting. All morning." Alice pouted. "I'm curious."

She wasn't giving up, so while muttering random curse words I slowly started to ease myself out of bed.

Alice waited patiently, smiling whenever I looked at her, and even handed me a cup of coffee.

"I made this for you."

"Thanks." I mumbled and put it on the bedside table and struggled into my sweats. Then I took a huge sip and groaned: "How come you're still up this early when you were partying all night?"

"It's a gift." Alice grinned. I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously, though, when did you get in yesterday?" I sipped more on my coffee, hoping it would wake me up.

"About four. You were asleep." Alice shrugged casually.

"And the boys?" I asked quietly.

When I went to bed last night Edward and Emmett had still been watching television in the living room. I was asleep before I heard them leave.

"They were gone by then."

I nodded and then yawned, stretching. "What time is it?"

"Eight-thirty." Alice smiled.

"Eight-thirty!?" I repeated, groaning. "Alice, normal people use the weekends to sleep!"

"Whatever." she waved it away with her hand impatiently. "We have more interesting things at hand."

"Which is?" I sighed and took another sip from my cup.

Alice raised her eyebrows and then pulled on my hand towards the bed. We sat down, Alice crossed legged and deep in thought.

"What happened last night? Why were you locked in your room?" she asked seriously and watched me. I looked away and used my coffee as an excuse to not reply. She sighed. "You promised you would tell me."

"Does it matter much?" I mumbled, my eyes on the door behind her.

"Yes." Alice nodded. "Yes, it does. I'm curious mostly, but also a little worried. Did they do something to you?"

"No." I muttered.

"Because they can be assholes if they want to-"Alice continued and grimaced.

"Alice, no." I interrupted, more strength in my voice now. She looked at me, a wrinkle on her forehead.

Then she asked in one breath:

"Is this about Edward?"

I froze and looked at her. She didn't look mad or betrayed, just serious. I swallowed.

"Um…"

"Bella, you can talk to me about anything." Alice sighed. "I'm sorry I freaked out the last time we spoke about him, but-"I grimaced when she mentioned it. "I'm in control now. Even if it's a little weird… It's alright. Let's talk openly about everything from now on, okay?"

I sighed. "Okay."

"Okay?" she repeated.

"Okay." I nodded.

Alice nodded, too.

"Good. So, now…" She took a deep breath and met my eyes seriously. "Do you like Edward?"

I stared back, thinking through my reply and came to the conclusion that short but honest was good.

"Yes."

Alice's expression didn't change an inch. I sighed, relieved.

"Sorry." I added, whispering.

"No." Alice shook her head and grinned. "I don't mind, really. As long as he doesn't… " Her mouth turned down again, all humor gone. "Did he do something last night? When you locked yourself up?"

"Um…Not really… I mean…" I struggled now, unsure of how to put it.

"Bella." Alice interrupted. She raised her eyebrows. "Openly, remember?"

I sighed and looked away again. To my horror I felt my eyes getting wet. Alice put her hand over mine, but didn't say anything.

After a few seconds I said: "He just… confuses me." Confuses wasn't a strong enough word, but it would do. I looked back at Alice. She was frowning.

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, like…" I shrugged and bit my lip, searching my head for an example. "He keeps giving me mixed signals. I don't really know how to act."

"Hm." Alice looked confused now. "Well, honestly, I don't think I understand my brother better than you do. He's a mystery now." She sighed. "We used to be like best friends, you know."

"What happened?" I whispered.

"Different things." Alice sounded avoiding and now it was her time to look away. I smirked.

"Openly, remember?" I teased. She met my gaze and giggled.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm just not used to talk about it. Besides, he would kill me if I did." Alice shrugged.

I leaned forward, curiously.

"You can tell me." I assured her.

Alice nodded, smiled, and thought about something. Then she swallowed and launched into her short little tale:

"Her name was Kylie. She was an exchange student from London and came here over a year. We were freshmen."

I frowned and listened intently while Alice continued.

"Edward fell for her at once. You could see it in his eyes how much he liked her." She looked at me with a weird expression when she said this. "They were together day and night. Out, in his dorm and between and after classes. You never saw them without the other." She sighed. "It was kind of like a fairytale, actually."

"What happened?" I asked quietly. Her expression told me it was not a happy ending.

"Another boy came along. They fought about her and Kylie was conflicted. Both of the boys were in love with her, but who did she love? The handsome, intelligent and polite one? Or the cute and fun that always made her laugh?" Alice looked bitter. She was right. It did sound like a fairytale plot. "Anyway, she ended up choosing neither and went home to London again when the year was over."

My mouth was open in shock. Alice nodded at my expression.

"Yeah, people said she was crazy. Maybe she was smart. But, either way, she ended up breaking two boy's hearts.

Edward had never been in love before that, you know. And he never has been after that."

"That's why he's seeing all those girls?" I whispered.

"Yeah." Alice nodded seriously. "I suppose it's his way of protecting himself of ever getting hurt that way again. Exposed."

"That's so sad." I mumbled. "But what does that have to do with you two? Why aren't you best friends anymore?"

Alice sighed deeply and shrugged. "He's putting up a shield, Bella. No one can get past it."

"Because of Kylie?"

"Yes. Before that we were inseparable. We told each other everything and always helped each other out. It's never been like that since then."

I didn't know what to say. It was hard for me to melt. Alice noticed and smiled.

"You don't have to say anything. I just wanted you to know that I don't really know him anymore. I don't understand him and everything he does. But I will hit him, however, for acting like that with you." It looked like she meant it.

I laughed and shook my head.

Then I was serious again, because there was a detail in the story that I just remembered I was curious about. Something about it made me feel like it was important.

"Alice." I started. She looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Who was the other boy in the story? You didn't say his name."

She sighed and smiled softly.

"You noticed that, didn't you?" Alice nodded and stretched her back, creating more time. Then she muttered: "Well, I suppose you already know."

"Know what?" I asked curiously and felt my heart hammer quicker when I stared at her face. She smiled.

"You wanted to know that before. Even though Edward made me promise not to tell anyone, I guess I just did anyway…" Alice took a deep breath. I listened intently, holding my breath. "It was Jacob Black, of course."

**LOL. Sorry! I had to leave you guys hanging... I'm cruel I know. **

**But there you have it. The short story of what happened between Edward and Jacob. You will get a longer version later in the story, but that's what happened in the bigger sense.**

**Anyways, I'm not so sure about this chapter so leave a comment and tell me what you think!**

**Remember, comments will make me write faster! **

**Thanks for reading!**

**xx, Tillie**


	9. Chapter 9

**_E - Edward_**

**_M - Me_**

**

* * *

**

E: *Furiously* The readers have been waiting for, like, a week for the next chapter!!! Where have you been!?

M: *nervously* I'm sorry. Really.

E: Oh yeah? Really? You're sorry. *Laughs angrily* How are these people supposed to know how things are going between me and Bella when you DON'T WRITE!?

M: *Defensively* But I DO write. All the time. And guess what, this chapter only took so long because I wanted it to be really good.

E: Yeah? *Snorts* Why?

M: You'll see. I can write it at the end. But there were also a lot things I had to learn to be able to write this...

E: Hmm...

M: *begging* But I always write, remember that. Even if it takes long. I'm always working on it. Just hang in there.

E: Fine. *Snorts* This chapter better be good now...*scrolls down*

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

"That's why they don't like each other." I whispered.

"Yes." Alice sighed and rolled her eyes. "Boys will be boys. I don't think they'll ever get over it."

"You didn't like me hanging out with Jacob before…" I mumbled and looked at her. Things started to make sense now.

"I was worried." she nodded, thoughtful. "Edward is my brother, after all. I'm on his side. Jacob is not good company."

"Jacob would probably say the same about you." I smiled.

She grinned and shrugged.

"Probably."

"But what about Emmett? How is he involved?" I frowned.

"He's not, really. Neither am I, I suppose. But we're family. "Alice shrugged. "Besides, you know Emmett now." She rolled her eyes. "He would love any excuse to pick a fight."

I laughed and nodded. And he would probably win, too. Then I sighed and pressed my head against my chest, exhausted again.

Alice patted my arm.

"I'm guessing that you don't have anything planned today."

"Gee, thanks for assuming that." I muttered. She giggled.

"Sorry. Let me rephrase: Do you, Bella, have something planned today?"

I looked up to glare at her and raised my eyebrows suspiciously.

"What will happen if I say no?"

Alice didn't reply, she simply smiled and waited for my response. I sighed.

"No, not really."

"Great!" she jumped up from the bed, cheerful, and clapped her hands. "Then you'll be with me, right?"

"Sure, Alice. But…" I looked at her. "We're not shopping, right?"

She rolled her eyes, but shook her head.

"No. Even though you're in desperate need of some new clothes." she pouted. I sighed. "But no, not today. We're actually watching a game. A baseball game."

It took a few moments before I realized what she was talking about. I groaned.

"Alice, really? You want to watch their game?"

"Uh-uh. Not necessarily. But you do." Alice smirked.

"What are you trying to pull?" I sighed and stepped off my bed, slowly heading towards my bathroom. Secretly, I was of course very excited and wanted nothing more than watch Edward getting sweaty and dirty… I shivered. But Alice didn't have to know that.

"Nothing." she said innocently and followed me. I threw a glare at her over my shoulder and she giggled. "You should get ready. They're probably warming up as we speak."

I tried to get rid of the image in my head of him warming up and furiously shook my head.

Alice winked at me in the mirror and skipped out of the room, humming lightly.

"Oh, and Bella." she called, teasing.

"Yeah?"

"Edward loves blue."

Her laugh echoed through the dorm and I blushed.

* * *

"So, have you ever seen a baseball game before?" Alice asked when we left the dorm a half hour later. She locked the door and we started towards the stairs.

"Yeah." I nodded. "My dad loves all sorts of sports. He made me see a game once upon a time."

There were a few other students up, too, wearing the school colors (green and white) and seemed to be on their way to the game, as well. They waved or nodded at us when we walked by and cheered loudly, in good spirits.

"Cool. You know how it works then." Alice smiled at me. Then her eyes flickered down to my blue shirt under my jacket and she frowned, but couldn't help but smirk.

"What?" I blushed. "I didn't have any other shirt."

"Sure." she said.

* * *

We stepped out into the chilly morning, complaining about the fact that the snow had disappeared completely over night, and Alice lead the way around the building.

It took a while to come all the way around the castle, but the ice-cold wind made us walk much faster than we would have. You could make out the sound of hundreds of people talking and laughing loudly around the corner.

"Here we are." Alice said cheerfully and nodded forward.

My eyes widened slightly at the sight.

A huge baseball court – very professional looking and with green fake grass surrounding it – covered almost the entire backside.

The forest in the background faded in comparison to the many colors and the glimmering pom-poms that belonged to the two cheerleading squads.

Our cheerleaders stood at the side closest to us, cheering loudly and pumping the audience.

That alerted me.

"Hey, Alice!" I shouted over the screams. "I thought you were a cheerleader."

"Oh, I am." Alice nodded. "For the basketball team. You thought I wanted to cheer for my brothers?" she snorted. "Now come on, I want to get a good seat."

That turned out to not be a big problem at all.

As soon as Alice and I came near the standings, about ten different guys quickly rose to their feet to give us room.

My eyes popped wide in surprise, but Alice seemed used to it and pulled me towards one of the front seats.

"Thank you." She nodded with an angel smile at the two boys who originally sat there and they nodded back, grinning like idiots at the pretty girl in front of them.

The audience was singing something, a school song I guessed, and jumped up and down in excitement.

Alice turned towards me, smiling excitedly.

"Pretty cool, huh?"she shouted.

"Yeah." I nodded and looked around. "There's a lot of people here."

"Yup." Alice nodded and opened her mouth to continue, but was interrupted.

"They're all here for the man whore." A vaguely familiar voice finished loudly.

I looked around, startled, and found Rosalie Hale sitting right behind us, her incredibly beautiful face close to ours to chat.

"Rose!" Alice smiled and leaned over to hug her. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I heard there's a game." Rosalie smiled sarcastically.

"What do you mean? Man whore? Who is that?" I pressed carefully, a little bothered by her earlier words. Mostly because I had a pretty good idea who she was talking about…

Rosalie looked over at me; the ice blue eyes intently focused on mine, and raised her eyebrows. I wanted to lean back, but found myself trapped in her gaze.

"Edward, of course."

"Rose always calls him that." Alice added.

"Wonder why." Rosalie scoffed.

"Everyone is here for… _him_?" I asked and felt myself blush when I realized that I was, too.

"Most of the girls." Alice shrugged. Rosalie pretended to gag loudly and Alice giggled.

"His biggest fan club is over there." Rosalie nodded towards the court.

I looked down there and saw the cheerleading squad. Lauren was among them, jumping up and down in excitement. When she turned towards me I saw her left cheek – his name was written in huge letters. I grimaced. Rosalie noticed and smiled dryly.

"Annoying, aren't they?"

"Rose, some of them are our friends." Alice scolded her.

Rosalie snorted, but didn't say anything else. She leaned back again, away from us, and started to chat with the girl next to her.

I went back to looking at the court. The cheerleaders just started to do a few stunts and the crowd went wild. Alice giggled when I covered my ears.

In my school in Forks no one had exactly been very big on school spirit. This was new for me.

I shuddered, first then remembering how cold it was.

"When is it starting?" I shouted to Alice.

"Soon. The other team is over there now." Alice pointed across the court and I saw a gang of huge, dangerous looking boys in uniforms in red and green. They looked tough.

"They look like Emmett." I commented.

Alice laughed loudly and shrugged.

"The Squirrels." she told me.

"They're good?" I asked and watched as they started to warm up.

Alice shrugged.

"Our boys are better." she smirked.

As on cue, a few moments later our team arrived. They came from a small door at the side of the school – "The locker rooms." Alice explained – and jogged towards the court.

The crowd exploded.

A few of the boys waved at the audience, among them Emmett, and I couldn't help but grin. Alice sighed and muttered something about embarrassing the family name.

Jasper and Edward arrived lastly. They were in deep conversation about something and didn't even seem to notice the obvious louder screams when they showed. Several girls shouted Edward's name with high-pitched voices.

An unwilling smile spread over my face when I saw him, even though he was so far away.

The green-white shirt clung nicely to his muscular chest and I licked my lips and felt my face go hot, remembering how that chest felt pressed up against me.

Suddenly, I didn't feel cold at all anymore.

His bronze hair shone in the soft morning sun and it looked wet – like he had poured water over himself.

Then I remembered who I was with and looked over at Alice to see if she had caught me staring like an obsessed. But she wasn't looking at me.

Her eyes were glued on the blond, blue-eyed boy at Edward's side. I smiled and looked away, letting her catch her breath. It felt good to know that I wasn't the only one who reacted silly when a particle boy arrived.

Edward and Jasper had reached the team bench and casually threw their white towels and water bottles on the ground with the other's.

"They look to be on their game." Alice noted when she had looked away from Jasper with a sigh.

"Yes." I agreed, clutching my hands nervously in my knee.

"Go team! Go team!" The cheerleaders cheered and I ironically wondered if they could've come up with anything more original. Regardless, the crowd soon followed and shouted along to the words over the stadium.

Edward and his teammates were standing in a big circle and Emmett seemed to be pep talking everyone.

"I always get so nervous." Alice sighed next to me.

I nodded and swallowed.

Suddenly Emmett looked up in the audience and looked at something behind us. Rosalie, I imagined. He grinned at her and waved. But then his eyes flickered to us and widened in surprise. But it was quickly replaced by another grin.

I waved nervously and Alice mouthed 'what' at him. He waved back and shrugged at his little sister.

The wave alerted a few of his teammates and they automatically turned around to see who he waved at. Most of them turned back again after a few seconds, uninterested, but Jasper had caught my eye and he waved at both of us cheerfully. We waved back. Alice had a cute, silly smile on her face. I giggled.

I stopped laughing immediately though when Jasper whispered something to his gorgeous, bronze-haired teammate.

The teammate in question looked up then, his eyes searching for something in the crowd – he saw his sister first and then he found me. He seemed confused at first and then surprised, but a smile slowly spread over his face and he waved.

I waved back, surprised that he acknowledged me, and blushed. Edward's smile widened.

All the girls around us turned to glare at me nastily – like when he sat next to me in class. They looked furious and I leaned back in confusion. Alice was looking from me to Edward with a knowing smirk.

"Why did they look at me like that?" I mumbled to Alice when all the girls had turned back towards the court. Edward and the rest of the team had started to warm up.

"Can't you smell the jealousy?" Alice smiled.

"Jealousy?" I gasped. "What are they jealous of?"

Alice looked at me and raised her eyebrows.

"Did you see him wave at anyone else here?"

* * *

When both teams were warmed up everyone took their positions. I saw the coaches from the two different schools yell instructions to their teams.

Edward was far out in left field, Emmett was standing between the first and second bases and Jasper held the ball at the pitcher's mound. Alice and I shared a nervous smile.

The crowd was cheering them on, yelling player's names and jumping up and down in their seats nervously. I covered my ears again and laughed out loud at the incredible happiness I felt in this moment.

Everyone here shared the same excitement, the same enthusiasm. It was amazing.

"Go, Go, GO!" The cheerleaders sang at the side of the court and shook their pom-poms. I saw Lauren wave at Edward – he didn't return the gesture, though, and I couldn't help but smirk.

Jasper, who was wearing gloves, held the ball in both hands at his waist, watching the ground, his face concentrated.

Then, without any further, the game began.

His left hand flicked out and smacked the ball.

"Nice." Alice commented quietly and I heard a few others behind us comment, too.

I smiled and watched intently as one of the players on the other team stared intently at the ball and tried to hit it with his bat.

Everyone cheered when he missed and I swear I saw Jasper smile softly.

"First strike!" A loud voice called out; clear enough for everyone in the audience to hear and all the players.

Jasper waited a few seconds, preparing himself, and I took the time to look at Edward. He was still standing far out and I could barely make out his face. He was leaning with his elbows against his knees, watching the game with concentration.

The wind played in his hair and I almost sighed in awe.

"Second strike!" The same voice suddenly called out and I jumped. I looked over at Jasper and saw that he was no longer holding the ball.

Alice cheered loudly with the crowd and beamed at me. I shook my head and tried to focus my attention on the game from then.

For the third time, Jasper's hand spun out and smashed the ball. This time, the guy from the other team managed to hit it with his bat. His teammates shouted in encouragement.

The ball shot over the field and landed out of sight.

Emmett was already running after it, his massive form disappearing behind the standings. Everyone waited anxiously.

The boy from the other team rounded the second base and flew by Edward.

"Come on, boys! Come on!" Alice shouted at the top of her lungs.

Only a few seconds later the ball came into view again and shot into Edward's awaiting hand. He immediately passed the ball to one of his other teammates.

"Out!" The same voice as before shouted and we all cheered.

Emmett came back onto the court, a huge grin visible on his face.

The game continued in the same manner. My throat was starting to get sore from all the screaming. Alice had been right when she said that our team was better.

"I told you!" Alice shouted and winked at me. I smiled at her and clapped my hands excitedly.

* * *

When the game was over and the audience had calmed down enough to start to leave the standings, Alice and I stayed in our seats and started to talk about the game. They won.

The sun was completely up now and I heard birds sing.

We were just about to leave after a few minutes, still in deep conversation about the game, when Jasper and Emmett walked up to us.

"Hello, ladies." Emmett grinned. He was sweaty and dirty and Alice leaned away from him.

"Ew, Emmett. You smell _so_ bad."

"Thank you, sis. I'm glad you liked the game." Emmett rolled his eyes. Jasper chuckled and winked at me.

"You guys did great." I smiled.

"Thanks, Bella." Jasper said.

"Oh my gosh, he's so hot…"

"I know." Two girls squealed when they walked by and threw side glances at Emmett and Jasper.

Alice groaned when Emmett looked after them.

"What?" he asked, eyes wide with innocence.

"They're freshmen." Alice looked disgusted.

"Whatever."

The two siblings continued to quarrel. I turned to Jasper instead and he smiled at me.

"You'd ever watched a baseball game before?" he asked.

"Yes." I nodded. "With my dad."

"Cool."

"Cullen, Hale! Come on, guys!"

We all looked down on the court and saw their coach stand there. The rest of the team was gone, probably in the locker rooms, and the cheerleaders were packing up their stuff.

"Okay, we're coming!" Jasper shouted back and then he added to us: "Sorry. See you two later, okay?" His eyes lingered some time on Alice, he smiled, and then he walked down the steps towards the field.

"Later, goof." Emmett poked his sister in the side. She punched him. "And bye, Bella." he added towards me.

Emmett joined Jasper on the court and we watched them exchange a few words with their coach and then walk towards the locker rooms.

"Let's get back. It's freezing." Alice sighed and linked her arm through mine. "I'm gathering you liked it, anyway?"

"I really did." I grinned, my thoughts on one very specific player.

Alice smirked and we walked, arm-in-arm, back towards the castle.

**So, like I told Edward in the beginning: This only took so long because I wanted it to be good. I also knew nothing about baseball and that took some time to learn. Try to write about something that you have no knowledge about at all!!**

**Anyways, I really hope you all liked it! Really. Because you have no idea how much fun it was to write! Baseball turned out to be so much fun. Who knew?**

**Next up is the family dinner at The Cullens… I'm so excited! **


	10. Chapter 10

**Yeah, so if anyone is still reading this story I'm amazed... *nervously* I'm not even going to try to make excuses... I'm not going to promise anymore when the next one will be out...**

**I'll just say:**

_**I'm sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

**_Enjoy the chapter, my faithful readers, and I hope it won't disappoint!!_**

**SUMMARY: Bella Swan attends a new school where she meets the rich families the Cullen's and the Hale's. A beautiful, certain Cullen-boy catches her eye, but can Edward change his player ways to make her see that he can be more than a gorgeous face? E/B and alot of A/B. OOC. **

* * *

**NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. The characters are created by the one and only Stephenie Meyer!! **

"Bella, will you please stop doing that…. yes, _that_!" Alice groaned and elbowed me in the ribs.

I grimaced and cried out as we walked.

"I'm am _so sorry_." I said ironically and rubbed my aching side. "But I can't help that I get claustrophobic in the mall, Alice, it's so_… intense_."

She rolled her eyes, but I saw the corners of her lips lifting slightly when she pulled me into a restaurant and pushed me down on a chair.

"Fine. You want to rest? A little break." she smirked and elegantly took place in the seat across the coffee table. "Okay, we can do that… What do you want for lunch?"

"Um…" I looked around and spotted the menu-sign over the counter. "A sandwich?" It sounded like a question.

"A big salad it is." Alice said, answering her question like I hadn't said anything. I raised my eyebrows at her, but she wasn't looking. "Hmm… and I think I'll have the same. Stay here, my darling." She went to order for us, leaving me sighing loudly and resting my elbow on top of the table.

Alice's idea of fun before going over to her parent's for dinner that night was to go shopping at the mall. She presented the idea looking overly-excited (even for being Alice) and almost fell over when I unwillingly agreed.

Now, three hours later (a lifetime), I regretted it even more than I thought I would. Alice didn't just spend years herself in the changing rooms; she also wanted me to try on things and even worse - buy them! When I had refused to buy the shoes, or the shirt or dress or whatever it was, she fought with all that she could muster before she disappeared and then reappeared with the things paid and taken care of for me. I blushed every time and mumbled a thank you while she waved her hand dismissively.

I'd always feared shopping (mostly because I lived with my dad during my younger teenage years) and almost never accompanied my friends to the Port Angeles mall.

The stores could be so crowded and hot and strangely lit. You were pushed here and there by other customers and everything was just simply stressful.

"Here you go…" Alice was back and placed a huge salad with a lot of green and red in front of me. "And…" she pushed a soda towards me. "There."

Sitting down again, sighing in continent, she immediately started to eat her own food. The smile never left her face.

"So, where do you want to go next?" Alice asked when she swallowed.

I shrugged and chewed thoughtfully.

"Are there any bookstores around here?"

"Sure!" She almost looked offended that I doubted the mall wouldn't have everything I could possibly look for. "We can go there next. I usually only go there when I'm here with Edward, he's such a book nerd." She shook her head and pretended to look ashamed.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise and swallowed.

"He is?"

"Oh yes." she nodded seriously. Then she giggled. "No one ever believes me. People don't think it fits well with his personality… or face, for that matter."

I nodded, considering that. It was definitely not something I could picture him doing on his spare time. But then I again, after all, I didn't really know him.

As if reading my thoughts, Alice said:

"People think they know who he is, that they are close friends…" she huffed. "I don't think anyone really knows him. He never let's anyone in."

"Yeah."

"So, bookstore it is." Alice smiled. "What do you say about Victoria Secrets after that?"

"Um, isn't that… like... you know…?" I blushed. "Underwear?" I whispered.

She threw her head back and laughed loudly, causing boys in the restaurant to turn around and smile at her without seeming able to stop themselves.

"There are other things, too, Bella." Alice wiped her eyes, a wide smile still on her face. "But if you do need some new-"

"Okay." I interrupted, my face flaming. She giggled and shrugged, dropping it.

"But seriously, Victoria Secrets, and then-"

"Alice? Bella?" A familiar voice disturbed whatever she was about to say.

We looked around and found Emmett with an amount of friends standing at the register angled towards us. He smiled and left his friends to walk over to our table.

"Hey." I smiled.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked and ignored his friends when they called his name, asking what he was having.

"Oh, gee, Em, I don't know…" Alice said sarcastically. "We saw this place and thought 'What the hell, might as well rob it' and right now we're planning, so if you'll excuse us…"

A few other customers turned around to stare at her. I giggled and hid my face in my hands. Emmett chuckled.

"Whatever, elf … You've shopped the entire mall again, I see." He nodded towards all our shopping bags and Alice beamed proudly.

"Almost. We're not done yet."

"Great. Tell me when you're going home, I need a ride."

"What about your geeky friends?" Alice asked and looked over at the group behind him; they were all staring in our direction, waiting for Emmett to return.

"They're doing something later and I can't go with them since we're going to mom and dad." He shrugged. "Good thing I found you guys here or I'd been forced to call Eddie…" He rolled his eyes. "He's so moody these days."

Alice glanced at me quickly, before she said:

"Well, okay, you can go home with us, but we're not done yet."

"Call me when you are, then." He nodded and walked back to his friends at the counter to order their food.

"Maybe." Alice muttered to herself and I smiled widely.

We finished our food and left quickly after, avoiding the table where Emmett and his friends sat ("He'll sabotage me if we come too close." Alice whispered.") and went directly to the old bookstore. It was almost entirely empty and I felt myself relax for the first time in hours when I smelled the familiar scent of old books.

Alice waited patiently when I walked in and out between the different shelves and couldn't keep the smile of my face.

"You really like books, huh?" she asked amusedly when I let my finger follow the different titles excitedly on a long shelve with books from the early eighties. I blushed.

"Yes. It's my biggest interest." I mumbled. She nodded in the corner of my eye.

I bought two new books with my favorite author and paid for them while Alice was reading a barrowed fashion magazine. She looked up when I was done and looked relieved, even though she didn't say anything.

"So, where-"I started to ask when we exited the store, but was cut off when I bumped straight into someone painfully hard. Alice yelped in shock and reached out for me automatically, but I crashed into the wall and lost my breath for a second.

"Oh my gosh, Bella-"Alice started and ran up to me.

"Are you okay?" she asked at the same time as someone else.

Oh no. _Oh no_. This was _not_ happening…

"Bella, I'm so sorry, I should've looked…" Edward hovered over me and looked concerned. I could breathe again, but in his presence it was faster and harder than normal anyway. "Are you alright? Say something!" he stressed.

"Um… um…" I swallowed thickly and tried to focus when his perfect face was so close to me, when his scent filled my head. "I…I…"

"Wow, that was one crash." Alice tried to laugh and sound like it was no big deal, but she was looking at me worriedly like I would fall over.

"I'm okay." I muttered awkwardly and managed to take a deep breath while rubbing my back, and pulled away from Edward, who watched me carefully with a frown.

"Sure?" he said and when I nodded, a smirk spread over his face. "We got to stop meeting like this. Or we'll get seriously hurt…"

Alice giggled somewhere in the background but Edward was looking at me in a way that made it hard to fully concentrate on anything else.

He was still smiling, but his eyes were serious… intense…

"So, are you book-shopping, too, Edward?" Alice asked, which made him finally break our stare. I breathed out.

"Yeah. I wanted the… the…the…" He trailed off and stared at one of the books in my hands, surprised. "Well, that one, actually." He pointed.

I gaped in shock. Edward met my gaze with amazement and smiled again.

"Really? What a coincidence…" Alice muttered, but I wasn't paying attention to her.

"Well, it's good… I mean…" I blushed. "I don't know that yet… but I'm… I'm sure it is."

He grinned at my stammering; my heart skipped a beat.

"Yeah, I hope so." he nodded. I nodded, too, and thrummed my fingers against the cover uncomfortably.

Alice broke the short silence while she looked between the two of us with a weird expression.

"Well, we have to get going… We have lots of things to do and shop before tonight… You're going?" she added towards Edward.

"Mmm?" he mumbled distantly, his eyes trapped on me (I hoped that my breathing wasn't loud enough for them to hear). Alice cleared her throat. He seemed to wake up from his dream state and looked away from me quickly. I almost thought he looked embarrassed when his sister glared at him. "Mm, yes, I am going. Mom called… Yes… so… I guess I'll see you both…um, then… right? I mean, are you-" He looked at me.

"Yeah. " I nodded. "Your mom invited me."

"Great." Edward blurted and nodded. With the look Alice gave him, he suddenly seemed quick to leave. "Well, again, I'm sorry for… well, for the second time, almost killing you." He grinned and I couldn't help but smile back. "I'll… yeah, I'll see you later…"

He cast me a last, strange look before he turned around and opened the door to the bookstore, almost stumbling when he walked inside. Alice and I stared after him; she with wide, confused eyes and I with a dreaming, distant smile.

Then she started to laugh disbelievingly.

"This is so… _weird_..." It sounded like she was talking more to herself than me. I dragged my eyes away from the bookstore where I knew he was and looked at my roommate.

"What's weird?"

"Oh, nothing." she quickly said and smiled a little too lightly at me. "Should we go? We should go… come on."

When we left to Victoria Secrets I noticed that I wasn't the only one that seemed deep in thought.

* * *

Another lifetime later, Alice finally admitted herself defeated and said that we should probably head home again. I smiled and nodded so enthusiastic, that she rolled her eyes half-amused and half-irritated.

In the car, I remembered a question that I had been burning to ask for a while:

"Hey, Alice, why were all your friends looking at me like that before?"

As Alice and I had made our way through every store at the mall in Alaska, we had spotted several people we knew. Everyone hugged Alice or gushed about the game this morning.

However, when they had turned to me their faces had suddenly been hostile and one girl even snorted loudly and exchanged a glance with her friends.

I had been deeply surprised and hurt by this and didn't say a word, but Alice must've noticed anyway.

"I'm not sure, Bella." Alice looked over at me. "I have my guesses…" she added, mumbling, and her tone let me know that she would not explain further.

I sighed and looked out through my window, watching the landscape rush by quickly outside. The sun was still standing high.

Then suddenly, so sudden that I screamed out loud, Alice stopped the car with a jolt, muttering a curse word. I brought a hand to my chest and gaped at her, my heart beating in my ears.

"What the hell are you doing?" I breathed and rubbed the place over my heart.

Other cars behind us honked angrily and then outdrove us under loud complaints about 'kids these days'.

"Shit, we forgot Emmett." she mumbled and rested her head on the wheel, groaning. "We have to go back."

"Oh." I said and frowned. Meeting Edward and then shopping again for another hour, I had completely forgotten that we were supposed to call him and tell him when we left.

Then I remembered:

"But hey, Edward's there, why can't he take Emmett home?" I said and looked over at Alice.

She lifted her head from the steering wheel and slowly met my gaze with a smile.

"Good idea! _Thank god_… Can I borrow your phone? Mine's in my purse in the back…"

I handed her my phone and watched as she quickly pressed a number that she obviously knew well and then how she brought it to her ear, waiting.

She started the car at the same time and we slowly started rolling again, as she waited for him to pick up.

"Hey." Alice sighed in relief. "…Yeah… yeah, we forgot… sorry… gee…" She rolled her eyes and I giggled. "You can go home with Ed, though-"My heart skipped a beat when she mentioned his name and I wanted to giggle again. "…yeah, he's there… I don't know; call him… yeah… okay… good! See ya!" She hung up and picked up the pace a little, smiling over at me.

"You might be a genius, Bella."

"Thanks." I joked and we laughed loudly.

* * *

At the school there was a typical 'last day on the weekend'- feeling around the building and I was happy to follow Alice to our dorm and leave the depressing atmosphere.

We dumped our shopping bags in our rooms and had a small snack in front of the television. While Alice went to make a call, I started doing some homework in the kitchen and tried to distract myself from thinking about the dinner that night.

Alice came back and happily told me that she had booked us on a massage in the school spa tomorrow night and when I protested, she said that it was already paid for and impossible to take back. She ignored my muttering and excitedly told me how good it would make me feel after an entire day of studying and asked if I wanted to do a manicure, as well. My glare was answer enough.

"We should get going soon." she said when the clock turned four. I looked away from the window that I had been watching dreamingly and felt a nervous, nauseas feeling in my stomach at her words. She casually continued to tap on her laptop for a few minutes, unaware of my constant swallowing.

Then she stood and smiled brilliantly at me.

"I'm going to change clothes quickly. I'll be right back and we'll leave, okay? I'm starving!"

She left, humming to herself and with the computer under her arm, and I stared after her.

I quickly rose to my feet and almost ran to my room, changing into a pair of jeans and a clean shirt. For a second I considered spraying on some perfume, but I didn't have time to dwell on it...

"Bella, are you ready?" Alice sang from the hall.

"Um, yeah!" I called back and turned away from my bathroom mirror.

* * *

The sun was slowly disappearing behind the castle when we walked across the parking lot and it instantly got colder. Alice seemed indifferent, but I shuddered in my thin jacket. The trees surrounding the school rocked from side to side in the wind and looked dark and menacing.

"It's not that far, is it?" I asked when we were in the Porsche and Alice started the engine.

"No, not all." she smiled and twisted her head to look behind us when she made her way out of the parking spot. "But my dad doesn't like it when we go there by foot at night."

The silver Volvo, that belonged to Edward, was gone and I was pretty sure it meant that he and Emmett were already at their parent's house.

"So, um… are you sure it's okay for everyone that I'm coming?" I asked nervously and twisted my hands in my lap. "I mean, it's a family occasion, right…?"

"Yeah, I'm sure my mom invited you over because she was just testing you." Alice rolled her eyes and smiled warmly at me. "Bella, she practically begged me to bring my new roommate. And besides, this is something we do a lot… It doesn't hurt to make it more interesting once in a while." She winked at me.

We drove on the normal road for a while, perhaps five minutes, and then suddenly took a sharp left; straight into the dark trees.

I yelped and looked over at Alice, but she looked perfectly at ease and smiled at me.

"I told you they live in the forest, didn't I?"

We were apparently driving on a path and not just randomly through the woods, I realized after a while, because there was no bumping and nothing in the way. That made it possible to relax a little.

There was nothing beside us but trees, tall and short, thick and thin. It was still snow on the muddy ground I noticed when angled my head to take a look, and ice on a small river that we drove by. It must be freezing could outside in here.

Alice was obviously driving a road that she had taken many times before and barely had to look where she drove, which worried me a little because she was still driving in her usual speed.

"There soon… there soon…" she mumbled a few times and started to slow her pace a little.

Another sharp turn, to right this time, and we suddenly entered a huge meadow. In the middle of it, shaded by the surrounding trees, was a white house and garage.

I gasped and could barely believe my eyes.

"Is this where your parents live?" I breathed and Alice nodded.

To me, it looked like this house had been directly stolen from a first-class street in the most expensive area in California and placed her in the forest by accident.

It was three floors high, with a porch wrapped around the entire first floor and a balcony at the third. The house was painted in a soft, faded white and was rectangular and well-proportioned. It hit me how old-fashioned it looked, maybe over a hundred years old.

Alice hummed a little to herself, and turned the car towards the driveway in front of the garage and parked behind the shiny silver Volvo. She turned off the engine.

When I jumped out of the car, I could hear a river close by.

"Wow, Alice." I whispered and looked around.

"I know. It's nice." she smiled.

When I looked up at the house again I thought I saw someone peek at us from the window and then disappear quickly; my eyes widened in surprise. Alice giggled at my expression and gesticulated for me to follow her.

"It's my mom. She's excited to see us."

And as true as it was said, the front door flung open before we even reached it and a woman with caramel colored hair peeked out.

"Alice! And Bella!" she said and smiled a heartwarming smile that made me melt. I instantly knew where Alice and her brothers got their good looks from.

"Hey, mom." Alice smiled and hugged her mother tightly. "How are you guys?"

"We're good, sweetie, all good. And how are you? The boys treating you okay?"

"Never." Alice joked and they both laughed.

Mrs Cullen turned to me then and her smile widened when she took me in.

"Well, I can certainly see why all my children are so smitten with you." she laughed and I blushed at her words.

"Thanks." I said uncertainly and added. "It's very nice to meet you, Mrs Cullen."

"The pleasure is all mine, sweetie. Call me Esme."

"Thank you, Esme." I smiled. Alice beamed at me from the corner of my eye.

"Well, come in, come in." Esme said and moved out of the doorway to let us go inside. Alice went in first and was already removing her jacket when I followed her.

The first that hit me was the warmth, the love; you could almost taste it in the air. It smelled strongly of fresh-made food and candles, I almost shuddered.

We were in a room that looked like it had originally been several rooms before walls were removed and you made it into one large room.

The entire south-facing wall was made of glass from which you could spot a huge, cartoon-blue pool with a cave and with trees in the background. This added to the open and airy feeling, as did the different shades of white around the room.

I let my head fall back to investigate the high-beamed ceiling and found a crystal chandelier that glittered mysteriously in the dimmed lighting.

"Here, Bella, let me take your jacket." Esme offered gently and I thanked her when she brought it to the crème-colored hat-stand.

Just to the left of the front door was a small podium with a grand piano on it. Behind that platform was a door that I guessed (by the smell) lead to the kitchen, which in turn opened onto the dining room. The dining room and the living room were only separated by a long wall that curved around it, like a screen. And on this wall I spotted a large flat-screen television.

Chairs in light colors filled the rest of the huge living room space.

Alice waved at me to follow her, smiling excitedly, and I hesitantly took a few steps towards her.

On the west of the room there was a wide, curving staircase that lead to the other floor with, what looked like, a satin, smooth rail.

Behind the sweep of the staircase to the right I spotted three other doors.

"Make yourself at home." Esme smiled at me. "I have to go back to the kitchen, unfortunately. Excuse me." And she left quickly. I figured she had something on the stove.

Alice led me to one of the doors behind the staircase. She smiled at me widely before knocking.

"It's my dad's office. Let's say hi." she whispered and then turned the knob to enter. I nervously followed after.

Mr Cullen looked up from his desk when we walked in and a warm smile spread over his perfect features. His hair was a light shade of blond and he reminded me strongly of a movie star that I couldn't name at the moment. The eyes were light blue.

"Alice… and Bella, of course." Mr Cullen said and rose to his feet, leaning over the mahogany desk with a raised hand towards me. I quickly came closer to shake it and blushed slightly when I looked straight into his warm, friendly eyes. "I've heard a lot about you from my kids. It's great to finally meet you."

"Thank you, sir." I mumbled and smiled. "It's very nice to meet you, too."

"Please, call me Carlisle." he said and his blue eyes twinkled. It surprised me how young he looked.

"Carlisle." I grinned.

Alice and her father hugged then and exchanged a few words, Carlisle chuckling lightly when she told him something funny.

Then he said:

"I'll be out in a minute, will you tell your mother, Alice? Otherwise she might think I'm being rude." He smiled again when he spoke of his wife.

"Sure." Alice said and nodded for me to open the door.

We left Carlisle's office and closed the door behind us. Alice smiled brilliantly at me.

"You see? I told you. They're really happy that you came."

I smiled in return.

"Come on, I'll show you the rest of the house."

The second floor turned out to be a long hall, paneled with honey-colored wood, and three different doors at each side. Alice told me what they were as we walked; Carlisle's second office, his library, Esme's study, Emmett's bedroom, a guestroom and the last door, Alice's own bedroom.

Her room was the only room that she bothered to show the inside of and I wasn't surprised to find that it was light and girly. There was a flat-screen television and a king-sized bed with light covers in different shades of beige. Her large wardrobe was accessed through the bedroom-sized bathroom.

Alice's walls were covered with paintings that she claimed she had done herself and were very beautiful.

"How come you don't paint anymore?" I asked when she told me this.

"I can only do it when I'm here." she gesticulated towards the huge window with a gorgeous view over the forest.

We continued to the third floor, which was another long corridor with paneled walls, and Alice pointed out the different rooms enthusiastically.

Most of the space was taken up by a large library and the other doors were guestrooms, except the last room in the hall. Edward's bedroom.

Alice didn't meet my eyes when she pointed out his room, but I could swear that she was smiling slightly when my breathing quickened.

"Well, we should see if the others are in the kitchen." she decided when the tour was over and looked at me with a smile. "Let's go downstairs again."

* * *

**There you have it, my friends. Like I said before, I won't promise when they next one will be out... But I'll try to finish it soon, that much I can promise! Obviously it will be a part two of 'Dinner With The Cullens'. **

**Thank you SO MUCH for sticking with me, you have no idea how much I owe you for still reading! ;) Thank you, guys!**

**I love you!**


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